SENRUG is a voluntary organisation that promotes rail travel and campaigns for better rail services in Northumberland and beyond, representing the interests of both existing and potential rail travellers in the area.
By ‘potential’, SENRUG means those who would use rail services if only the trains went where they want to go, at the time they want to go, at a price they can afford, and in a clean, safe, secure, accessible and easy to understand manner.
Please look through our website to find out more about our current campaigns and how we pursue them. Use the Contact button below to let us know if you agree or advise us of ideas of your own.
The more people we speak for, the louder our voice is heard. If you support our objectives, we invite you to add your voice to ours and join SENRUG, to help us achieve our campaigns and develop new ones.
SENRUG has been campaigning for the re-opening of the Ashington Blyth & Tyne Line, now known as The Northumberland Line, linking Newcastle to Ashington, since March 2005. The first phase opened on 15th December 2024. See the history of the campaign to date at our AB&T Campaign History Page. However, SENRUG is not a single issue campaign group, and you can check out our other campaigns and the progress we are making on our Campaigns Index page here.
LATEST NEWS
Northumberland Park AND Bedlington Stations Opening Dates Announced: Northumberland Park will open on Sunday 22nd February, and Bedlington will open 5 weeks later on Sunday 29th March. Nexus have confirmed they will be adjusting the southbound times of bus 19 from Northumberland Park to Cobalt and Silverlink to connect with the arrival of southbound Northumberland Line trains – though this won’t be for the opening day itself but will follow a shortly afterwards (the present times will “just miss” giving passengers a 30 minute wait at Northumberland Park). Bedlington Station will be the final station on the Northumberland line to open, bringing the construction phase to an end (apart from some residual clearing up activity) after SENRUG’s 21 year long campaign. SENRUG continues to campaign for a number of Northumberland Line extensions as well as other improvements to the County’s rail network, as listed on our campaigns page here.
Lumo Launches to Glasgow: Some Lumo trains now extend beyond Edinburgh to Haymarket, Falkirk High and Glasgow Queen Street. On Mondays to Fridays, this is the 15:21 and 17:22 from Morpeth (15:08 and 17:08 from Newcastle). On Sundays it’s 19:21 from Morpeth (19:07) from Newcastle. There’s only 1 return journey per day at present: On Mondays – Fridays departs Glasgow Queen Street at 18:18 and 09:22 on Sundays. See the full Lumo timetable here.
Minor LNER Timetable Tweak (May 2026): Following a request from SENRUG, LNER have advised they will be re-establishing the connection from the first morning southbound train from Berwick, Alnmouth and Morpeth on to the Flying Scotsman service to London (now also calls at York). It has not been possible to buy through tickets since December as the connection time at Newcastle had been cut from 8 minutes to 7 – and the ticket booking software requires a minimum of 8 minutes to offer a through ticket. We are grateful to LNER for their positive response to SENRUG on this point..
