Northumberland Line date slips but driver training begins

Bedlington station looks set to open in December 2025 - a year after the rest of the Northumberland Line, the opening of which has itself slipped from summer 2024 to this coming winter.  

South East Northumberland Rail User Group Chairman Dennis Fancett said on July 25 that Bedlington’s delay appeared to be caused by the discovery of an unmapped water main that needs to be moved.  

Meanwhile, in an announcement on August 2, Northumberland County Council blamed weather for the decision to put back the line’s £300 million reopening to December 2024.  

The council opened a new road bridge over the line at Newsham on August 1. This has enabled Network Rail to close the adjacent level crossing and open the southern section of the line, something it had planned for last May.  

In turn, this allowed Northern to start driver training between Newcastle and Ashington. Northern 158851 arrived at Ashington at 0917 on August 5, working the 0849 from Heaton Depot.  

Other recent milestones for the line include opening an underpass at Palmerville and installing a cycle bridge over the A189 road to link Blyth with Bebside station.  

The Northumberland Line project has upgraded 12 miles of the Blyth and Tyne freight railway between Benton Junction (where it meets the East Coast Main Line) and Ashington.  

There will be stations at Ashington, Bedlington, Blyth Bebside, Newsham, Seaton Delaval and Northumberland Park, where passengers will be able to change to Tyne and Wear Metro services (RAIL 933). In its July newsletter about the line, the county council committed only to opening Seaton Delaval, Newsham and Ashington in December 2024.  

Network Rail Senior Sponsor David Ball said: “This programme has been much more than dusting off some old infrastructure or re-painting a few stations.  

 “Bringing this line back to life has meant renewing almost everything that remained since the last passenger service in the mid-1960s, with a brand new signalling system and new track both key to getting the journey times and capacity - alongside the existing freight services - that will make this line a critical part of the North East rail network.”