Progress is slow in Northumberland

The project to reopen a line in the northeast of England is slow, despite vigorous engineering and campaigning efforts. The Northumberland Line, principally connecting the port of Blyth and the community of Ashington to the city of Newcastle, has encountered delays and missed its hoped-for opening in the summer of this year. Campaigners are now eager to return the freight-only loop to mixed traffic before the end of 2024.

Setbacks on the opening of the North Northumberland line have frustrated communities, anticipating the return of passenger rail services to their corner of England after a gap of exactly sixty years. The 19-mile-long line, parallel to the East Coast Main Line, was planned to open in the summer of this year, with six stations between Blyth and Newcastle.

New stations not ready

A freight-only branch line, serving former mining communities north of Newcastle, was set to open for mixed traffic this summer. The Northumberland Line, currently serving the port of Blyth, will see passenger traffic reintroduced by the end of this year, after an extensive refurbishment of the infrastructure, and the building of six new stations. However, not all of the new stations are ready, which is a frustration to those intermediate communities.

The heavy rail opening is independent of the renewal of the train fleet serving the Tyne and Wear Metro, but runs in part alongside that network on approach to Newcastle. “There is an appetite for rail travel by people who would travel by rail if there were a service to use,” says campaigner Dennis Fancett, who chairs the South East Northumberland Rail Users Group. “People in the Northumberland also want to travel north. We think that some [passenger rail operating] companies are very London-centric. Destinations like Edinburgh are a significant market to potential passengers in the North East of England.”

Northbound services a future possibility

Speaking at a meeting of influential campaigning body, RailFuture, Dennis Fancett, said that he was disappointed that the eventual opening will still be lacking some stations. However, the overall design of the line has taken into account future extensions. “Ashington station will be the northernmost station on the Northumberland Line,” said a joint statement from the promoters, which include local administrations and the infrastructure agency Network Rail. “The track layout at the station has been carefully designed so that the route can be extended further north in the future.”

Extension northwards could see the line rejoin the East Coast Main Line, potentially making northbound services a reality. Existing freight traffic uses a junction only a few miles south, and it would take mixed traffic to make a business case for a new curve and additional junction. “A local service between Newcastle and Berwick is a campaign for us,” said Dennis Fancett. Other sympathetic campaign groups would like to see those local services echo the 1980s, and extend to Edinburgh. Dennis did express derision that the costs of the Northumberland Line have risen to £298m (€348m), for what is effectively an in-situ track upgrading. “This puts a severe constraint on any further reopening projects elsewhere,” he said.