Northumberland Line reopening: progress updates

[GuyGibsonVC]

50,000 Journeys Made on Northumberland Line in First Month​

Northumberland County Council - 50,000 journeys made on Northumberland Line in first month

Passengers have made more than 50,000 journeys on Northumberland Line services in the first month after the opening.

www.northumberland.gov.uk

50,000 journeys made on Northumberland Line in first month​

15 Jan 2025

Passengers have made more than 50,000 journeys on Northumberland Line services in the first month after the opening.

The line reopened to passengers – for the first time in 60 years – in December, thanks to a £298.5m project involving the Department for Transport, Network Rail, Northumberland County Council and Northern.

Services now call at Newcastle, Manors, Seaton Delaval and Ashington, with a journey along the entire 18-mile route taking around 35 minutes and a single ticket costing no more than £3.

Tickets for more than 50,000 journeys have been bought since the opening and Saturdays have been particularly popular.

That includes more than 3,500 journeys made on the opening day (Sunday, 15 December), when the platform in Ashington was packed with people waiting to catch a glimpse of the first service.

More than 16,000 journeys were then recorded in the first week.

Paul Henry, programme manager for the Northumberland Line, said: “It has been fantastic to welcome thousands of passengers on board after we spent years planning and preparing for the opening.

“The line is already making such an impact in the region and opening up new opportunities for so many people.”

Glen Sanderson, leader of Northumberland County Council, said: "This is a great milestone to reach after a month of opening and shows just how much need there was for this line which we've worked so hard for over the past few years.

"It's been fantastic to see how popular the service has been over the festive period, as well as those using it every day whether for work or education.

"We're looking forward to more stations opening in the near future which will no doubt increase passenger numbers even further."

Northern is reminding all customers to buy tickets before they board the train. They can be bought from the Northern website and app, ticket vending machines and over the counter at ticket offices.

The maximum peak-time single fare – for the trip from Newcastle to Ashington – is £3 and a return trip costs £6. An off-peak single for the same journey is £2.60 and a return is £5.20.

Posters at each of the stations remind passengers they can be issued with a £100 penalty fare if they do not buy a valid ticket before they board.

Northern has worked with Nexus, the public body which runs Tyne and Wear Metro, and Northumberland County Council to provide integrated fares for multi-modal journeys.

Customers can seamlessly switch between Metro and Northern services by using the North East’s Pop ‘Pay As You Go’ system to purchase smart fares.

Northern is running two daytime services an hour on the Northumberland Line from Monday to Saturday and one train per hour in the evenings and on Sundays.

Passengers travel on Class 158 trains, which have space for bicycles and wheelchairs, accessible toilets, free on-board Wi-Fi and charging points.

New stations in Newsham, Bedlington, Blyth Bebside and Northumberland Park remain under construction and they are due to open this year.

Northern is the second largest train operator in the UK, with 2,500 services a day to more than 500 stations across the North of England.

 

[duffield]

50,000 Journeys Made on Northumberland Line in First Month​

Northumberland County Council - 50,000 journeys made on Northumberland Line in first month

Passengers have made more than 50,000 journeys on Northumberland Line services in the first month after the opening.

www.northumberland.gov.uk

So do we know if that is above, below or in line with expectations?

 

[nerdowell]

Its been projected that 380,000 (2017 projection off Wikipedia, can't find anything more recent atm) will use the line each year.
(Extremely back of the packet maths coming...)
50,000 - 3000 = 47,000 x 12 = 564,000 Individual trips.
If the majority of them were people using returns it would be 280,000 trips per year, for two stations.
Obviously though, first couple months usage is going to be skewed by people who are riding it just to see what its like,probably better to look after all the stations are open.

 

[GuyGibsonVC]

So do we know if that is above, below or in line with expectations?

No idea, but it feels impressive with only a third of the stations open.

There are grumblings that the service needs strengthened already with trains full and standing at a weekend or when Newcastle are at home. The 2216 back to Ashington tonight is 2 x 158 which is good to see.

 

[AeM]

50,000 journeys made on Northumberland Line in First Month​

Northumberland County Council - 50,000 journeys made on Northumberland Line in first month

Passengers have made more than 50,000 journeys on Northumberland Line services in the first month after the opening.

www.northumberland.gov.uk

Would be interesting to see how that compares with the Business Case for the re-opening.

 

[IanD]

Probably mostly vloggers and youtubers

 

[androdas]

From the times I have been on it seems to be busiest mid morning heading to Newcastle. Given the retail offering in Ashington that is no real surprise. I also think the fact the fares are comparable to the bus service is also helping matters along with the car park being free. I know some people have switched from using Morpeth / Cramlington to Seaton Delaval / Ashington for that very reason. It will be also interesting to see how the service impacts on the numbers of those station going forward.

 

[ainsworth74]

There are grumblings that the service needs strengthened already with trains full and standing at a weekend or when Newcastle are at home. The 2216 back to Ashington tonight is 2 x 158 which is good to see.

And only one of the intermediate stations are open...

It's obviously hard to tell on opening day when people are out to see what it's all about but there was just a vibe that it was a service that was going to need to be strengthened before too long once all the stations were open and it had bedded in.

 

[waverley47]

Would be interesting to see how that compares with the Business Case for the re-opening.

Usually we'd assess the result in the period of one year, beginning six months after full opening.

Basically wait until all the stations are open, wait six months for things to bed in and passenger habits to settle, and then assess those numbers against the business case. Unfortunately it's still far too early to make any conclusions.

 

[Class 170101]

Its been projected that 380,000 (2017 projection off Wikipedia, can't find anything more recent atm) will use the line each year.
(Extremely back of the packet maths coming...)
50,000 - 3000 = 47,000 x 12 = 564,000 Individual trips.
If the majority of them were people using returns it would be 280,000 trips per year, for two stations.
Obviously though, first couple months usage is going to be skewed by people who are riding it just to see what its like,probably better to look after all the stations are open.

Sorry if I have missed something but why the 3000 deduction from 50000?

 

[swt_passenger]

Sorry if I have missed something but why the 3000 deduction from 50000?

I think its probably to account for the opening Sunday which saw 3500, which I suppose won’t be typical of any other Sunday.

 

[zwk500]

Its been projected that 380,000 (2017 projection off Wikipedia, can't find anything more recent atm) will use the line each year.

2019 Outline Business Case available here: https://gat04-live-1517c8a4486c4160...p40_-_outline_business_case_november_2019.pdf

Summary table of demand:

For the options, the number is the service frequency in tph, 'T' means a franchised operation and 'A' means a concession. I haven't read the full document to know the specifics of what the modes of operation entail.

As it's a half hourly operation, the annual demand projectiion was for 550-700,00 return journeys, or c.46,000-58,000 return trips per month. It's not clear from the article if the 50,000 journeys figure is single or return trips. Also relevant is that 16,000 of the journeys were made in the first week, so the remaining 3 weeks had 36,000 journeys at an average of 12,000 a week - indicating the 'enthusiast's bounce' was less significant overall than some may have feared!
I haven't seen the Final Business Case numbers, so don't know how much these figures changed in the 5 years since the document was issued in November 2019, especially post-COVID.

 

[geordieblue]

2019 Outline Business Case available here: https://gat04-live-1517c8a4486c4160...p40_-_outline_business_case_november_2019.pdf

Summary table of demand:
View attachment 172874
For the options, the number is the service frequency in tph, 'T' means a franchised operation and 'A' means a concession. I haven't read the full document to know the specifics of what the modes of operation entail.

As it's a half hourly operation, the annual demand projectiion was for 550-700,00 return journeys, or c.46,000-58,000 return trips per month. It's not clear from the article if the 50,000 journeys figure is single or return trips. Also relevant is that 16,000 of the journeys were made in the first week, so the remaining 3 weeks had 36,000 journeys at an average of 12,000 a week - indicating the 'enthusiast's bounce' was less significant overall than some may have feared!
I haven't seen the Final Business Case numbers, so don't know how much these figures changed in the 5 years since the document was issued in November 2019, especially post-COVID.

I don’t follow how the half hourly point is relevant - wasn’t the plan all along to go half hourly, and thus the average expected demand is indeed 362,000 return trips?

 

[zwk500]

I don’t follow how the half hourly point is relevant - wasn’t the plan all along to go half hourly, and thus the average expected demand is indeed 362,000 return trips?

The OBC was testing options where the 'T1' or 'A1' options opened with an hourly service, see this table:

T1 would have opened with half-hourly in the peak (and in the peak direction only) and hourly off-peak.

 

[geordieblue]

The OBC was testing options where the 'T1' or 'A1' options opened with an hourly service, see this table:
View attachment 172880
T1 would have opened with half-hourly in the peak (and in the peak direction only) and hourly off-peak.

Ah thanks - that’s helpful.

 

[Snex]

Surely it's difficult, to make any comparisons to predicted numbers as arguably two of the busier stations (Newsham and Bedlington) aren't open yet. Bedlington, in particular, is in the middle of a massive housing area with a pretty slow bus service to Newcastle.

Seaton Delaval, arguably was always going to be one of the quieter stations as there's not that much around, hence it was originally in Phase B with Bebside. Anyone from the far end of the village it's still arguably quicker to use the bus or interchange with the Metro somewhere, if driving, since it's more frequent.

 

[GuyGibsonVC]

Surely it's difficult, to make any comparisons to predicted numbers as arguably two of the busier stations (Newsham and Bedlington) aren't open yet. Bedlington, in particular, is in the middle of a massive housing area with a pretty slow bus service to Newcastle.

Seaton Delaval, arguably was always going to be one of the quieter stations as there's not that much around, hence it was originally in Phase B with Bebside. Anyone from the far end of the village it's still arguably quicker to use the bus or interchange with the Metro somewhere, if driving, since it's more frequent.

I think Delaval may be a bit of a dark horse. The car park has been busy and it attracts people from Seaton Sluice, Seghill and Holywell.

Add this to the unreliability of the Metro and the horrendous North Tyneside traffic towards Newcastle and it is being well used.

 

[androdas]

Add this to the unreliability of the Metro and the horrendous North Tyneside traffic towards Newcastle and it is being well used.

While the congestion has been building steadily over the last couple of years on the A19 / A189 corridors I think it is now around pre covid levels in the morning / evening rush especially around the Moor Farm and it is just sheer volume of traffic. With it looking like improvements are off the table in the medium term to the roads in the area the train is only going to be more attractive. I think there may be a real increase in demand when Northumberland Park opens and there is better intergration with the Metro as going all the way into Central to come back out to North Tyneside stations isnt really worth it.

 

[Snex]

I think Delaval may be a bit of a dark horse. The car park has been busy and it attracts people from Seaton Sluice, Seghill and Holywell.

Add this to the unreliability of the Metro and the horrendous North Tyneside traffic towards Newcastle and it is being well used.

Yeah agreed, it's my local station and I was always unsure how it would do. The fact the X7 (local bus) is unreliable, as an understatement, with regular cancellations probably helps the numbers aswell.

While the congestion has been building steadily over the last couple of years on the A19 / A189 corridors I think it is now around pre covid levels in the morning / evening rush especially around the Moor Farm and it is just sheer volume of traffic. With it looking like improvements are off the table in the medium term to the roads in the area the train is only going to be more attractive. I think there may be a real increase in demand when Northumberland Park opens and there is better intergration with the Metro as going all the way into Central to come back out to North Tyneside stations isnt really worth it.

Not sure there'll be much demand for the interchange from Seaton Delaval for Northumberland Park personally. The 19 (Cobalt / North Shields / Silverlink), 57/57A (Whitley Bay) and X7 (Quorum) arguably serve the main places where people want to go in North Tyneside and are all direct. It'll all be direct Newcastle or beyond traffic imo.

 

[ddavids]

2019 Outline Business Case available here: https://gat04-live-1517c8a4486c4160...p40_-_outline_business_case_november_2019.pdf

Summary table of demand:
View attachment 172874
For the options, the number is the service frequency in tph, 'T' means a franchised operation and 'A' means a concession. I haven't read the full document to know the specifics of what the modes of operation entail.

As it's a half hourly operation, the annual demand projectiion was for 550-700,00 return journeys, or c.46,000-58,000 return trips per month. It's not clear from the article if the 50,000 journeys figure is single or return trips. Also relevant is that 16,000 of the journeys were made in the first week, so the remaining 3 weeks had 36,000 journeys at an average of 12,000 a week - indicating the 'enthusiast's bounce' was less significant overall than some may have feared!
I haven't seen the Final Business Case numbers, so don't know how much these figures changed in the 5 years since the document was issued in November 2019, especially post-COVID.

You have to bear In mind that the railway was closed Xmas day boxing day and New years day

 

[zwk500]

You have to bear In mind that the railway was closed Xmas day boxing day and New years day

Given the level of uncertainty involved in demand forecasting I don't think the 3 bank holidays are particularly relevant. There's a reason demand is usually projected in annual figures. The true test of the projections will be on a multi-year average basis.
But even if you do want to adjust for the Bank Holidays, it's still good news. The railway is attracting a strong level of passenger demand which demonstrates the case for these sort of proposals, and it is well aligned with the projections used to demonstrate the case for the line, which will give confidence in projections for other proposals.

 

[Snex]

I always thought it would do well. For a while I lived down the far end (Denham Drive area) and the X7 has always been an absolute clown show of a bus service. I was living there ten years ago and, even then, I could ride my bicycle to my job by Haymarket in the same time it took to do that journey on the 8am X7. To the extent that, when I didn't fancy the ride, I often took the 57 down to West Monkseaton and then got the Metro from there as it was quite a bit quicker. And less unpleasant, given Arriva always seemed to stick a single decker on that 8am bus.

I could walk from my house to the 'new' Co-Op in 20-25 minutes. I'd definitely do that rather than take the X7, if I still lived there. Of course most people out there have a car because the public transport isn't great, so in reality they'd drive or get a lift. I strongly suspect that the car park isn't going to be big enough.


The waggonway that runs from Earsdon Road all the way down to Percy Main would be easily enough converted back to rail or light rail. The section south of Middle Engine Lane already has track on it (the old Metro test track) as part of the museum. But that would only be accessible from the north. There's no way you'd ever see a west-south curve get built, the topography isn't well suited and a lot of expensive houses would need to be demolished.

Yeah that's the end I live at, the problem is the 20-25 walk. I also quite often do the 57/57A and/or 19 route (it's a new bus route via Northumberland Park) and when it's raining, it's a route I'd probably still be tempted to do over the railway line. Mainly because of the Transport North Ticket at £6.80 where you can do the bus and Metro.

Now if it accepted the Northumberland Line, that would choice would always be the railway line, especially considering I travel sometimes beyond Newcastle.

No arguments about the curve, I always forget how tight it is around there. Be interesting to see what their plans for it actually were as in the Rail Strategy (https://www.northeast-ca.gov.uk/downloads/2597/north-east-rail-and-metro-strategy.pdf) it discusses an inner loop so seems like they've got some form of idea for it. Mind I don't believe it'll ever be built though even known Cobalt arguably would be one of the best things to link up, even if it was just from the South at first.

 

[yorkie]

Just a gentle reminder, this thread is for infrastructure/stations updates.

The following threads may also be of interest:

Fares advice/discussion:

Northumberland Line fares (including impact on Tyne & Wear Metro maximum fares)

Someone might know but does anyone know if the North East Transport tickets are valid? They're currently usable on the trains between Sunderland and Blaydon so would seem a bit of an own goal to exclude them since they'd allow interchange with buses to the stations.

www.railforums.co.uk

Trip-related discussion:

Northumberland Line: trip planning & reports

Just being nosy .. how many folk here are planning on going on the first train, or at least travelling on the first day ?

www.railforums.co.uk

Speculative discussions:

Newbiggin railway station

Plans to extend the Northumberland Line to Newbiggin confirmed to be under consideration Leading figures on both sides of the political divide have outlined their hopes of extending the Northumberland Line past Ashington. The £300 million railway is set to open to passengers for the first...

www.railforums.co.uk

Your suggestions for the reopening of the Northumberland Line via Bedlington

Moderator note: Split from https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/northumberland-line-to-be-re-opened-to-passengers.204414/ I know it’s far too early to start talking about rolling stock for the route, but could this be ideal for utilising some of Northern’s 769 fleet? More so if the services...

www.railforums.co.uk

Northumberland Line : potential expansion and timetable improvements?

Moderator note: Split from https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/northumberland-line-to-be-re-opened-to-passengers.204414/page-44#post-7085444 Could an option not be to swap the clock hours around so you'd have xx:46 trains in an evening rather than xx:16 with the last 2300 train from Ashington...

www.railforums.co.uk

Historical discussion:

Seghill Railway and Cramlington Waggonway

Many years ago, I remember reading about the Seghill Railway and of the history of the Cramlington Waggonway and at the time I made a note about the location of Prospect Hill railway station, saying it was opened on 28th August 1841 and was not closed until 27th June 1864. It appears there had...

www.railforums.co.uk

If you'd like to discuss anything else, please do create a new thread, if there isn't one already!

Thanks in advance

 

[androdas]

I have noticed in the last week or so the loaded biomass trains have been crossing North Seaton Viaduct at walking pace and I was just wondering if anyone on here knows why? It is causing some road delays at Marcheys House and North Seaton crossings. The passenger trains and biomass empties seem to be unaffected and there does not seem to be any temporary speed restriction boards from what I can see.

The viaduct was constructed in 1925 and before the line was reopened to passengers had some issues with corrosion which resulted in speed restrictions and I believe for a while only one train at a time could be signalled over the structure. There was a lot of work done on both that viaduct and the Bedlington one in the mid 2010s. I hope it has not deteriorated again as that could be a bit of a potential headache for the project.

 

[swt_passenger]

I have noticed in the last week or so the loaded biomass trains have been crossing North Seaton Viaduct at walking pace and I was just wondering if anyone on here knows why? It is causing some road delays at Marcheys House and North Seaton crossings. The passenger trains and biomass empties seem to be unaffected and there does not seem to be any temporary speed restriction boards from what I can see.

The viaduct was constructed in 1925 and before the line was reopened to passengers had some issues with corrosion which resulted in speed restrictions and I believe for a while only one train at a time could be signalled over the structure. There was a lot of work done on both that viaduct and the Bedlington one in the mid 2010s. I hope it has not deteriorated again as that could be a bit of a potential headache for the project.

I happened to be looking at the old maps of the railway in the area, and it looked very much as if the 1925/26 viaduct was built “offline” ie just to the east of the earlier viaduct, and the tracks slewed across to meet its new alignment. It‘s possibly easier to see on the south bank, but there’s a widening of the approach formation/embankment not present on earlier large scale maps.

 

[androdas]

It was both North Seaton and Bebside were built to replace earlier wooden trestles, my grandfather had a picture of his father standing in front of it. You used to be able to see the old abutments and bases when I used to play down there in the early 80s as a child but its all overgrown now. This is a picture of the old one at Bedlington (Its marked Sleekburn but that was the original name of the settlement now called now Bedlington Station) I beleive they were of exactly the same design much like the current steel viaducts are now.



( From the bedlington.uk site at https://bedlington.uk/forums/topic/4109-viaduct-over-river-blyth/page/2/ )

I suppose if the time ever comes to replace the steel viaducts the opposite could be done with a new bridge built where the old woodon ones were and the railway moved back to the old 1860's alignment. Of course somebody somewhere would need to give the magic money tree a good old shake for that to happen.

 

[swt_passenger]

It was both North Seaton and Bebside were built to replace earlier wooden trestles, my grandfather had a picture of his father standing in front of it. You used to be able to see the old abutments and bases when I used to play down there in the early 80s as a child but it’s all overgrown now. This is a picture of the old one at Bedlington (Its marked Sleekburn but that was the original name of the settlement now called now Bedlington Station) I beleive they were of exactly the same design much like the current steel viaducts are now.
[…]
I suppose if the time ever comes to replace the steel viaducts the opposite could be done with a new bridge built where the old woodon ones were and the railway moved back to the old 1860's alignment. Of course somebody somewhere would need to give the magic money tree a good old shake for that to happen.

Thanks for confirming what I’d assumed, by having seen the redundant bases etc. I was also thinking the same as you, that if they ever needed to they could move back to the original alignment.

 

[ddavids]

I think when all stations are open they will need more than 2 carriages

 

[ainsworth74]

I think when all stations are open they will need more than 2 carriages

Yes, it's still early days but I do reckon that the line is going to need regular strengthening quite quickly. Which won't be possibly without more units being made available for Heaton. Fingers crossed someone is having a think about this.

 

[Meole]

And only two of the intermediate stations are open...

It's obviously hard to tell on opening day when people are out to see what it's all about but there was just a vibe that it was a service that was going to need to be strengthened before too long once all the stations were open and it had bedded in.

When I took the train there was only a single intermediate stop, suggests one has closed already for a period ?