Northumberland Line

The Blyth and Tyne Railway was incorporated in 1853 to unify several private railways and waggonways that were concerned with bringing coal from the Northumberland coalfield to Blyth and to the River Tyne. Over the years, it expanded its network northwards to include Ashington. As coal output increased, the company became very prosperous in hauling the mineral to quays for export and, in addition, a residential passenger service based on Newcastle built up.

Passenger services were withdrawn from the lines in 1964 as part of the Beeching cuts.[2] Faced with declining passenger business and the requirement for considerable expenditure to renew the electrical systems and rolling stock on the electric network, the remaining routes reverted to diesel traction in 1967. In the 1970s, renewed interest in suburban rail led to the construction of the Tyne and Wear Metro, which uses stretches of the Blyth and Tyne Railway, including a short stretch which will form part of the Northumberland Line, between Benton Junction and Northumberland Park.

Freight services on the route gradually declined with the closure of coal mines in the area. As of 2022 around five freight services a day were operating the branch, providing the biomass (former coal-fired) power station at Lynemouth, at the northern end of the line, with wood chips from the Port of Tyne.[2]

There have been proposals to reintroduce passenger services to part of the ex-B&TR system since the 1990s. Denis Murphy, the then Labour MP for Wansbeck, expressed support in the House of Commons in an adjournment debate in April 1999 and again in a debate in January 2007.[4] The Railway Development Society (renamed Railfuture in 2000) endorsed the proposal in 1998.[5]

Local rail campaign group, The South East Northumberland Rail User Group, began a campaign to reopen the line in March 2005.[6] In 2009, the Association of Train Operating Companies published a £34 million proposal to restore passenger services to the north-eastern part of the B&TR system. It would have included reopening stations at Seaton Delaval, Bedlington, Newsham (for Blyth) and Ashington.[7]

In the early 2010s Northumberland County Council (NCC) became interested in the reintroduction of passenger services onto remaining freight-only sections of the network. In June 2013 NCC commissioned Network Rail to complete a GRIP 1 study to examine the best options for the scheme.[8] NCC received the GRIP 1 study in March 2014 and in June 2015 it commissioned a more detailed GRIP 2 feasibility study at a cost of £850,000.[9]

The GRIP 2 study, which NCC received in October 2016,[10] confirmed that the reintroduction of a frequent seven-day a week passenger service between Newcastle and Ashington was feasible and could provide economic benefits of £70 million with more than 380,000 people using the line each year by 2034.[11] The 2016 GRIP 2 study envisaged a project (at the time referred to as the Ashington, Blyth & Tyne Line), at an estimated cost of £191 million,[11] involving construction of new or reopened stations at Northumberland Park (for interchange with the Tyne and Wear Metro), either Seghill or Seaton Delaval, Newsham, Blyth Park & Ride, Bedlington, Ashington and Woodhorn (for the Woodhorn Colliery Museum and Northumberland Archives) with a potential end to end journey time of 37 minutes.[12]

After receiving the GRIP 2 study, NCC initially announced that it was proceeding with a GRIP 3 Study from Network Rail. However, such a report was not commissioned at the time.[13] Despite a change in the political leadership of Northumberland County Council following the 2017 local elections[14] the authority continued to work towards the reintroduction of a passenger service onto the line,[15] encouraged by the Department for Transport's (DfT) November 2017 report, A Strategic Vision for Rail, which named the line as a possible candidate for a future reintroduction of passenger services.[16][17] Consequentially, NCC commissioned a further interim study in November 2017 (dubbed GRIP 2B) to determine whether high costs and long timescales identified in the GRIP 2 Study could be reduced by reducing the initial scope of the project, but the report failed to deliver on this.[13]

The county council has, however, continued to develop the project and hired AECOM and SLC Rail as contractors to develop the scheme on their behalf in 2018.[18] On 8 February 2019, the council chartered a train from Northern that carried the then Secretary of State for Transport Chris Grayling and other dignitaries over part of the route (now rechristened the Northumberland Line) between Morpeth and Newsham,[19] after which NCC announced an additional £3.46 million in funding for a further business case and detailed design study[20] (equivalent to GRIP 3)[21] to be completed by the end of 2019.[20][22]

Level crossing at Potland Burn, on the disused line north from Ashington

Revised proposals, released in July 2019, were reduced in scope from the plan considered in the 2016 GRIP 2 study and proposed a four-phase project[23] to reduce the initial cost; first phase, at an estimated £90 million,[20] was to introduce an hourly passenger service[18] to serve new or reopened stations at Northumberland Park, Newsham, Bedlington and Ashington and would have included some line-speed upgrades, extension of the double track section further to the south of Newsham, creation of turn-back facilities at Ashington and some level crossing upgrades or closures.[23] Two further stations, at Seaton Delaval and Blyth Bebside (formerly Blyth Park & Ride), and additional line-speed improvements were suggested for Phase 2, while Phases 3 would have delivered further line-speed and signalling improvements and phase 4 would have created an additional passing-loop at Seaton Delaval[23] so as to enable the provision of a half-hourly service.[18] Previously proposed stations at Woodhorn[24] and Seghill were dropped from the scheme.[25] In August 2020, it was reported that the four proposed phases announced in 2019 might be merged into a single phase.[26]

Minister for Railways Chris Heaton-Harris announced an initial grant of £1.5 million towards the project costs during a visit to the site of Bedlington station in January 2020[27] which was supplemented by an allocation of £10 million of funds from Northumberland County Council the following month.[18] This funding enabled AECOM to begin detailed on-site ground investigation works in October 2020.[28] The allocation of a further £34 million of UK Government funding for the project in January 2021 enabled the necessary land to be purchased, detailed designs to be prepared and some early preparatory and site works to begin.[29] In January 2021, it was anticipated that the UK Government would fund the remainder of the project cost, estimated at £166 million as of January 2021, once the final phase of design works were completed.[3]

Planning applications were submitted for the proposed stations at Northumberland Park[30] and Ashington in February 2021,[31] for Blyth Bebside[32] and Bedlington in March,[33] and Seaton Delaval in June.[34] Northumberland County Council later submitted a complementary Transport and Works Act Order application to the Secretary of State for Transport Grant Shapps on 26 May 2021,[35][36] under which they would be conferred certain additional powers deemed necessary for the new stations to be constructed and the line upgraded to carry regular passenger services.[37]

The first preliminary infrastructure works implemented as part of this project — renewal of 600 yards (550 m) of track near Newsham — were completed in June 2021.[38] In August 2021, Morgan Sindall Construction were awarded a £40 million contract to undertake detailed design and construction works[39] for the new stations and footbridges, as well as the major track upgrade works associated with the project.[40] Planning permission was granted for all stations by March 2022,[1] and it is anticipated that the main construction phase could begin in mid 2022, enabling an opening date in 2023.[2]