Northumberland Line to be re-opened to passengers

[Dr Hoo]

When Labour came to power in 1964, after 13 years of Tory rule, one of their first acts was to close the Blyth & Tyne Railway to passenger trains. It didn't matter electorally because the area had always been staunchly Labour. So it was ironic that the only way for local people to get their trains back 55 years later was to vote Tory in 2019. It worked of course, and Brexit might have played a part, but there's an even deeper irony that the reopening might well be after Labour win back the local seats next year!

Yes, I've thought that too.

Quite an interesting read if you like the NE rail history, although the Beeching report was commisioned by the Tory government, delivered by March 63 but it was indeed Labour who moved forward with it the seconf tranche was deliver in 65.

What wasn't made public knowledge was with a few methods of rationislation a lot of the routes that were axed could of been saved and provided a better service than the bus routes.

However Dr Richard Beeching was on the board of ICI britians biggest tarmac producer, he took a 5 year sabatical from ICI but clealry had the tarmac interest at heart during his cull of the railways.

Some interesting stuff there. I'd never heard it claimed that ICI was Britain's biggest tarmac producer before. In fact I wasn't even aware that ICI produced tarmac, asphalt and so on at all. There is no mention of the material on the wikipedia entry for ICI. (I am aware though that in a quirk of corporate restructuring history over the past sixty years some assets that were formerly owned by Buxton Lime Industries, which was part of ICI, have ended up with the company that we now commonly know at 'Tarmac'.)

Given that the overwhelming traffic around the North East was coal and Dr B expected BR to continue moving no less that 23,000,000 tons per year of the stuff from numerous production points to the various shipment facilities and the recently-constructed Blyth Power Stations I'm not sure that there was much scope for rationalisation of the network at the time. The passenger service to Blyth in 1962 consisted mainly of a local shuttle from Newsham, connecting to/from a slightly irregular but roughly hourly local service from Monkseaton where it connected with the North Tyneside electrics. I'm not sure that a typical 45-50 minute journey to Newcastle City Centre with two changes was really very competitive with the through bus.

I'm also unclear how much scope there was for 'the tarmac interest' to make money out the transfer of what I suspect were very modest numbers of rail passengers to road in the area.

(I'm not sure that the tasks of winding up the British Transport Commission and running BR for a few years would be regarded as a 'sabbatical' either.)

 

[59CosG95]

It's all to do with this rather than the railway line:

Fears of Bedlington 'black hole' after Tesco site project delay

Advance Northumberland had said a "well-known retailer" was interested in the site, but a formal commitment still hasn't been received

www.chroniclelive.co.uk

It's been going on for years and there's absolutely no signs of it changing any time soon, either. He's just using the railway line as another point scoring exercise against the council.

Sounds like a prime candidate for APILN! (Angry People In Local Newspapers)

 

[androdas]

The official news article on the council website disagrees slightly with the chronicle article in that the plan is still to open Ashington, Newsham and Seaton Delaval in Summer 2024* whereas the Chronicle seems to hint at November / December, with Bedlington, Bebside and Northumberland Park to open later as soon as they are ready.

*Depending on good progress being made over the Winter and Spring

Like all these things its ready when its ready and I really dont think there is any great conspiracy to serve one town in front of the other.

https://www.northumberlandline.uk/post/passenger-services-confirmed-for-summer-2024

Passenger Services Confirmed for Summer 2024
The Northumberland Line – bringing passenger services back between the South East of the county and central Newcastle – will be open from Summer 2024.



With a journey time between Ashington and central Newcastle of around 35 minutes, the line will improve accessibility to employment, training and leisure for residents in south east Northumberland, as well as opening up new opportunities for education and travel.



To allow for services to start at the earliest possible opportunity, a phased approach is confirmed for opening – with Ashington, Newsham and Seaton Delaval open from this summer.



However, a great deal of work remains to be completed, such as the commissioning of the new signalling system over the coming months ,and continued good progress this Winter and Spring is critical to getting services running again.



Work is ongoing to get the other planned stations opened as quickly as possible, although the exact dates are still to be finalised.



Council Leader Glen Sanderson said: “We’re delighted to confirm passenger trains will be running from Summer 2024 and this will be an absolute game changer for transport in the area.



“The line will bring so many benefits in terms of work and education opportunities, inward investment and business growth in the county and a reduction in congestion.



“We understand there may be some disappointment by adopting this phased approach and thank people for their patience while this critical work continues.



“Every single person involved with the Northumberland Line is working hard to deliver this fantastic scheme – but a lot of hard work still lies ahead.



“This is a hugely complex project with major station construction works being undertaken at six separate sites, signalling and track improvements along the line and changes to numerous level crossing points all of which must be co-ordinated and undertaken to minimise disruption to local communities, rail freight services and road users.



“As with any project under construction, challenges and issues have arisen, but we can’t let that overshadow the fact that the service will be up and running this year or the benefits that will bring.



“At the same time it’s crucial we get the Northumberland Line open and allow people to start making use of the line as soon as possible.”



There are a variety of issues that have arisen which mean it is not possible to open all six stations this summer.



The most common causes at the remaining stations are adverse ground conditions – including contamination and buried services, inflationary pressures and historic mine workings. There are also complex interfaces with signalling and access to the railway which remains open to freight trains.

 

[WesternBiker]

Some interesting stuff there. I'd never heard it claimed that ICI was Britain's biggest tarmac producer before. In fact I wasn't even aware that ICI produced tarmac, asphalt and so on at all. There is no mention of the material on the wikipedia entry for ICI. (I am aware though that in a quirk of corporate restructuring history over the past sixty years some assets that were formerly owned by Buxton Lime Industries, which was part of ICI, have ended up with the company that we now commonly know at 'Tarmac'.)

Indeed - a new one on me, too. What is evident is that Beeching was commissioned by Ernest Marples, who had a very clear interest in road building.

 

[Dr Hoo]

Indeed - a new one on me, too. What is evident is that Beeching was commissioned by Ernest Marples, who had a very clear interest in road building.

Well; slightly nearer the mark. But seeing that for all intents and purposes the whole 'Blyth & Tyne' area remained very busy with freight for many years and I doubt that the total rail passenger usage needed more than about one bus per hour to take it on, I'm not sure how much of an orgy of road building was triggered by the withdrawal.

 

[Killingworth]

Well; slightly nearer the mark. But seeing that for all intents and purposes the whole 'Blyth & Tyne' area remained very busy with freight for many years and I doubt that the total rail passenger usage needed more than about one bus per hour to take it on, I'm not sure how much of an orgy of road building was triggered by the withdrawal.

I remember very well how south-east Northumberland was in the 1950s and early 60s. Coal.mines and miners everywhere and not many cars. Ship building and engineering along the Tyne valley. Corporation yellow buses in Newcastle. Red United buses out towards Blyth and Ashington. Northern running to Co Durham. The Tyneside electrics taken for granteud and at 11 I was cycling 30 miles on relatively empty roads.

By 1965 the writing was clearly on the wall. The old Blyth and Tyne steam hauled trains that I'd seen every morning on my way to junior school had been replaced by DMUs and soon they replaced the electrics. Everyone had to have a car, including me. Mines and shopyards were declining. Unemployment was rising. Lord Hailsham renounced his peerage and as Quintin Hogg was given the task of championing employment in the north-east. He waved a hand bell.

As compensation for loss of mining jobs we got new roads, mine buildings cleared, landscaped pit heaps and Wilkinson sword built a razor blade factory at Cramington new town and there was a perfume factory immortalised in the play "Close the coal house door."

For one who cycled round that area from an early age and then drove round it in his first car, a 1952 Morris Minor, it's almost unrecognisable today. New roads, Newcastle bypassed to west and east by the A1 and A19, new factories and masses of new housing. The smouldering pit heaps have gone and so has the spiders web of colliery railway lines that went with them.

As that web of lines contracted the road network has expanded and the entire nature of the area has changed. In the days when there were still passenger trains to Manors they were infrequent. Why would miners want to use them or for that matter why would anyone else? They didn't. Somehow United's bus routes have mostly survived, with different names and colours but still far more frequent than the passenger rail line ever was.

At the time of Beeching's report mining in Northumberland was already in terminal decline and most of the railway infrastructure that went with it. I watch the reopening with great interest and hope it does well. It's going to be operating in an almost totally different environment.

 

[Trestrol]

With the push towards MGR trains and more intense working you wonder if passenger trains got in the way. Blyth power station,Alcan works and power station, Ellington, Bates, Lyemouth plus other collieries, import/exports from Blyth docks. It was all about freight and the opportunity to reduce the probability loss making passenger traffic was a no brainer. We are lucky the line never shut completely after the millennium when all the industry shut. It would probably have been an impossible uphill task to reinstate it.

 

[WesternBiker]

Well; slightly nearer the mark. But seeing that for all intents and purposes the whole 'Blyth & Tyne' area remained very busy with freight for many years and I doubt that the total rail passenger usage needed more than about one bus per hour to take it on, I'm not sure how much of an orgy of road building was triggered by the withdrawal.

Indeed - though I was only commenting on the personalities and their conflicts of interest, not on whether this specific case was at all influenced. Many lines would have closed in any case, regardless of Beeching or Marples.

 

[androdas]

With the push towards MGR trains and more intense working you wonder if passenger trains got in the way. Blyth power station,Alcan works and power station, Ellington, Bates, Lyemouth plus other collieries, import/exports from Blyth docks. It was all about freight and the opportunity to reduce the probability loss making passenger traffic was a no brainer. We are lucky the line never shut completely after the millennium when all the industry shut. It would probably have been an impossible uphill task to reinstate it.

I think it was luck more than anything that kept what we have left of the Blyth and Tyne open, after the pits, power station and smelter closed. The two main users of the line were Lynemouth Power Station for Coal / Biomass from Tyne Dock and Blyth Docks for Alumina to Scotland and a little coal to Yorkshire. All these flows happened to be at the extremities of the line as it is now so kept it open however there are some tales tell it wasn't kept in the best condition. Even after the pits closed it was heavily rationalised losing the lines to Butterwell and the ECML to the north, the branches to South Blyth docks and the extensive Depot / sidings area at Cambois as well as lots of single track sections that have had to be addressed between Blyth and Backworth to allow passenger trains to return. No doubt if the alumina traffic and Lynemouth power station had gone at the same time as the smelter the whole thing would have been left to rot or ripped up and reopening to passengers would have either been much harder or off the cards completely.

 

[ainsworth74]

I've been sent the following photo of Ashington station taken very recently (apologise for the slightly rubbish resolution, blame Facebook Messenger!):



(Original credit: Greg Walker, AECOM)

Looks to be coming along very nicely, all it needs now is a train!

 

[swt_passenger]

I've been sent the following photo of Ashington station taken very recently (apologise for the slightly rubbish resolution, blame Facebook Messenger!):
[…]
Looks to be coming along very nicely, all it needs now is a train!

Interesting that there’s still an ancient 25 mph speed restriction sign for the upcoming curve, that must have survived recent track works.

 

[edwin_m]

I remember very well how south-east Northumberland was in the 1950s and early 60s. Coal.mines and miners everywhere and not many cars. Ship building and engineering along the Tyne valley. Corporation yellow buses in Newcastle. Red United buses out towards Blyth and Ashington. Northern running to Co Durham. The Tyneside electrics taken for granteud and at 11 I was cycling 30 miles on relatively empty roads.

By 1965 the writing was clearly on the wall. The old Blyth and Tyne steam hauled trains that I'd seen every morning on my way to junior school had been replaced by DMUs and soon they replaced the electrics. Everyone had to have a car, including me. Mines and shopyards were declining. Unemployment was rising. Lord Hailsham renounced his peerage and as Quintin Hogg was given the task of championing employment in the north-east. He waved a hand bell.

As compensation for loss of mining jobs we got new roads, mine buildings cleared, landscaped pit heaps and Wilkinson sword built a razor blade factory at Cramington new town and there was a perfume factory immortalised in the play "Close the coal house door."

For one who cycled round that area from an early age and then drove round it in his first car, a 1952 Morris Minor, it's almost unrecognisable today. New roads, Newcastle bypassed to west and east by the A1 and A19, new factories and masses of new housing. The smouldering pit heaps have gone and so has the spiders web of colliery railway lines that went with them.

As that web of lines contracted the road network has expanded and the entire nature of the area has changed. In the days when there were still passenger trains to Manors they were infrequent. Why would miners want to use them or for that matter why would anyone else? They didn't. Somehow United's bus routes have mostly survived, with different names and colours but still far more frequent than the passenger rail line ever was.

At the time of Beeching's report mining in Northumberland was already in terminal decline and most of the railway infrastructure that went with it. I watch the reopening with great interest and hope it does well. It's going to be operating in an almost totally different environment.

It's probably also fair to say that in that era most people living in the Blyth/Ashington area worked locally, and the bus into Newcastle was probably much quicker than it is today. Loss of local jobs and increase in commuting and traffic congestion has created the conditions for re-opening that did not exist when it was closed.

 

[Killingworth]

It's probably also fair to say that in that era most people living in the Blyth/Ashington area worked locally, and the bus into Newcastle was probably much quicker than it is today. Loss of local jobs and increase in commuting and traffic congestion has created the conditions for re-opening that did not exist when it was closed.

But there was "the Ministry" at Longbenton!

 

[edwin_m]

But there was "the Ministry" at Longbenton!

Would many people living in Ashington and Blyth have worked there in the era when there was a passenger train service? If so then I assume a bus would have been provided, considering it's near one of the main roads from Blyth area into Newcastle. The new rail service will allow commuting by interchange with the Metro at Northumberland Park when that opens, but according to Wikipedia the government site is closing in 2027 and remaining jobs moving into central Newcastle.

 

[Killingworth]

Would many people living in Ashington and Blyth have worked there in the era when there was a passenger train service? If so then I assume a bus would have been provided, considering it's near one of the main roads from Blyth area into Newcastle. The new rail service will allow commuting by interchange with the Metro at Northumberland Park when that opens, but according to Wikipedia the government site is closing in 2027 and remaining jobs moving into central Newcastle.

They probably did but the passenger service of that time didn't go near. There were fleets of dedicated buses lined up outside to all parts of Tyneside timed to leave within minutes of finishing time, usually a few minutes earlier on Fridays. A site full of clock watchers because if you didn't catch the special buses to places like Winlaton or Spennymoor it would be a very long trek home.

 

[busesrusuk]

What is/was that place?

 

[Killingworth]

What is/was that place?

Ministry of Pensions later including National Insurance. Built immediately after WW2 it was a vast sprawl of H block type buildings reputedly intended to have been used as hospitals but for 50 years was The Ministry where large numbers started their careers in the civil service. It was probably the largest non industrial employer in the north east and relied heavily on a dedicated web of bus routes. Longbenton station on the North Tyneside electric loop line was built near it.

I'm no longer local to the area but if the site hadn't been used for the Ministry pre WW2 it had been well placed for housing development

 

[androdas]

Ministry of Pensions later including National Insurance. Built immediately after WW2 it was a vast sprawl of H block type buildings reputedly intended to have been used as hospitals but for 50 years was The Ministry where large numbers started their careers in the civil service. It was probably the largest non industrial employer in the north east and relied heavily on a dedicated web of bus routes. Longbenton station on the North Tyneside electric loop line was built near it.

I'm no longer local to the area but if the site hadn't been used for the Ministry pre WW2 it had been well placed for housing development

Its still in use in fact I used to work there. Mostly by HMRC & DWP but there are other government departments present. HMRC intend to move out in 2027 to the city centre and DWP have not made their plans known but the future of the site looks uncertain.

 

[Requeststop]

Yes, I've thought that too.

Some interesting stuff there. I'd never heard it claimed that ICI was Britain's biggest tarmac producer before. In fact I wasn't even aware that ICI produced tarmac, asphalt and so on at all. There is no mention of the material on the wikipedia entry for ICI. (I am aware though that in a quirk of corporate restructuring history over the past sixty years some assets that were formerly owned by Buxton Lime Industries, which was part of ICI, have ended up with the company that we now commonly know at 'Tarmac'.)

Given that the overwhelming traffic around the North East was coal and Dr B expected BR to continue moving no less that 23,000,000 tons per year of the stuff from numerous production points to the various shipment facilities and the recently-constructed Blyth Power Stations I'm not sure that there was much scope for rationalisation of the network at the time. The passenger service to Blyth in 1962 consisted mainly of a local shuttle from Newsham, connecting to/from a slightly irregular but roughly hourly local service from Monkseaton where it connected with the North Tyneside electrics. I'm not sure that a typical 45-50 minute journey to Newcastle City Centre with two changes was really very competitive with the through bus.

I'm also unclear how much scope there was for 'the tarmac interest' to make money out the transfer of what I suspect were very modest numbers of rail passengers to road in the area.

(I'm not sure that the tasks of winding up the British Transport Commission and running BR for a few years would be regarded as a 'sabbatical' either.)

At one time, the Teesside Oil Refinery was owned by ICI. One of the fractions of Crude Oil is Asphalt and Bitumen.
The Refinery that was once Mobil, and then then BP's in Coryton in Essex sent Asphalt to Frome in Somerset by rail. I know, In the 1970's I used to load and weigh the wagons.

 

[busesrusuk]

Its still in use in fact I used to work there. Mostly by HMRC & DWP but there are other government departments present. HMRC intend to move out in 2027 to the city centre and DWP have not made their plans known but the future of the site looks uncertain.

Thanks for the replies. It doesn't look anything like that now based on Google - it looks considerably smaller and presumably some of the site has now been developed into housing...

 

[androdas]

Thanks for the replies. It doesn't look anything like that now based on Google - it looks considerably smaller and presumably some of the site has now been developed into housing...

Yes the only part that survived the early 2000s remodelling was the base of the flagpole, and that's no longer used for a flag but the centrepiece of an outdoor seating area. The areas of housing either side of the driveway used to be part of the site.

Back on the topic of the Northumberland line. The project posted an article today on the track renewals that have been taking place including some short but interesting aerial shots of renewals at West Sleekburn and Bedlington taken over last summer.

Improving the Northumberland Line's Track

One of the big changes on the Northumberland Line is that a lot of the track that the trains run on has had to be replaced. We're moving from freight trains that run at slow speeds to also having passenger trains that will run faster so that you can travel from Ashington to Newcastle in around...

www.northumberlandline.uk

 

[swt_passenger]

Its still in use in fact I used to work there. Mostly by HMRC & DWP but there are other government departments present. HMRC intend to move out in 2027 to the city centre and DWP have not made their plans known but the future of the site looks uncertain.

My dad spent almost his entire working life there, other than a few years in the RN just after the war. In the late 40s he lived in a single men’s hostel somewhere on the site, and travelled home to Alnwick at weekends.

 

[DanBlanchflowe]

The new HMRC 5-10 storey new and refurbished office blocks in Pilgrim Street, central Newcastle have their frames complete, so looks on course for opening in 2027. When all complete they will accommodate 9,000 staff. Of course if there is hot desking, these days the number of desks will be considerably less.

Ideally located less than 10 mins walk from Central Station and 5mins from Monument Metro. The Metro and new Northumberland Line well placed to transport workers who lived near the old 'Ministry' site.

Will massively increase trade in the City Centre.
A massive NE employer, every Tyneside district has people who work or worked there.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Are there any current percentage statistics available that show the modes of travel used by workers entering into the City Centre of Newcastle?

 

[androdas]

Doesn't seem give the exact percentages but this website may be of use: https://www.transportnortheast.gov.uk/transport-data/

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Doesn't seem give the exact percentages but this website may be of use: https://www.transportnortheast.gov.uk/transport-data/

The Park and Ride section showed a total 37% increase in 2023 over the 2022 figures, with only two of those sites showing a reduction.

 

[Snex]

The Park and Ride section showed a total 37% increase in 2023 over the 2022 figures, with only two of those sites showing a reduction.

It's very deceptive using percentages considing the large car parks are running at around 10% and the ones with around 30 spaces are running at around 50%.

Not to mention, unless things have changed, people park at Four Lane Ends and walk to the ministry.

Talk about manipulative data.

 

[norbitonflyer]

Been another update for the opening of this today. It's now been announced that it's now:

Ashington, Newsham, Seaton Delaval - Summer 2024
Bedlington, Bebside, Northumberland Park - Delayed, no date but possibly 2025

Q paths now showing in Real Time Trains. No distivction made between those stations due to open in summer and those that are delayed.

Departures from Ashington on the hour and half hour, from Newcastle a little variable (presumably for pathing reasons), but usually just after the quarters. End to end journey time 36 minutes.

 

[swt_passenger]

Departures from Ashington on the hour and half hour…

That should be a good marketing point, probably the easiest timetable to learn…

 

[geoffk]

Alternate trains shown as calling at Manors. Is that a change from the original plan?