Bedlington | |
---|---|
![]() View northward, towards Ashington and Newbiggin (curving right at North Box), and Morpeth (left at Box). Colliery line shown in left foreground 12 May 1965. | |
General information | |
Location | Bedlington, Northumberland England |
Coordinates | 55°08′25″N1°34′01″W / 55.1404°N 1.567°W |
Grid reference | NZ275829 |
Platforms | 1 |
Other information | |
Status | Disused |
History | |
Original company | Blyth and Tyne Railway |
Pre-grouping | North Eastern Railway |
Post-grouping | |
Key dates | |
3 August 1850 | Opened |
2 November 1964 | Closed completely |
Autumn 2022 | Construction work begins |
TBA | Proposed reopening |
Bedlington railway station was a railway station that served the town of Bedlington, Northumberland, England from 1850 to 1964 on the Blyth and Tyne Railway. The station was closed by British Railways in 1964, but construction of a new station is now underway.
The station was opened on 3 August 1850 by the Blyth and Tyne Railway. The station was situated on the north side of the level crossing on Station Road, west of the junction with Palace Road. Nearby was Bedlington Colliery. In 1911, NER statistics showed that a population of 14,755 was served by the station in that year. In the inter-war years, residential development grew in the vicinity of the station, thus the number of users who used it grew. The station closed to both passengers and goods traffic on 2 November 1964. [1]
Proposals to reintroduce passenger rail services to the currently freight-only section of the former Blyth and Tyne Railway system have been discussed since the 1990s. [2] [3] [4]
In the early 2010s, Northumberland County Council became interested in the proposals, commissioning Network Rail to complete a GRIP 1 study to examine the best options for the scheme in June 2013. [5] This report was published in March 2014 and was followed in June 2015 with the commissioning of a more detailed GRIP 2 study at a cost of £850,000. [6] The GRIP 2 study, published in October 2016, confirmed that the reintroduction of a frequent seven-day a week passenger service between Newcastle, Ashington and possibly a new terminus to the east, at Woodhorn, was feasible and could provide economic benefits of £70 million with more than 380,000 people using the line each year by 2034. [7] Despite a change in the political leadership of Northumberland County Council following the 2017 local elections [8] the authority continued to develop the project, [9] encouraged by the Department for Transport's November 2017 report, A Strategic Vision for Rail, which named the line as a possible candidate for a future reintroduction of passenger services. [10] [11] 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. [12]
Nonetheless, the county council has continued to develop the project, hiring AECOM and SCL Rail as contractors to develop the scheme on their behalf in 2018 [13] and allocating an additional £3.46 million in funding for a further business case and detailed design study [14] (equivalent to GRIP 3) [12] in February 2019. [14] Revised plans were revealed in July 2019 which were reduced in scope from the 2016 GRIP 2 study and proposed 4-phase project [15] to reduce the initial cost of the scheme. Phase 1 (at an estimated cost of £90 million) [14] would have seen Bedlington station reopened as the penultimate stop for hourly passenger trains [13] on the Newcastle to Ashington Northumberland Line, while later phases would have added additional stations and the infrastructure upgrades required elsewhere on the line [15] to provide a half-hourly frequency. [13] However, in August 2020 it was reported that these four proposed phases might be merged into a single one. [16]
The North East Joint Transport Committee's bid for £377 million of funding from the UK Government's £1.28 billion Transforming Cities Fund, submitted on 20 June 2019, includes £99 million to fund the reintroduction of passenger services between Newcastle and Ashington, [17] while further work is ongoing to secure additional public and private investment for the project. [18]
The Department for Transport allocated an initial grant of £1.5 million towards the project costs in January 2020 [19] which was supplemented by an allocation of £10 million of funds from Northumberland County Council the following month. [13] This funding enabled AECOM to begin detailed on-site ground investigation works in October 2020. [20] The allocation of a further £34 million of UK Government funding for the project in January 2021 enables the necessary land to be purchased, detailed designs to be prepared and some early preparatory and site works to begin. [21] 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. [22] However, in April 2021, it was reported that government officials were seeking to reduce the cost of the project as part of the Department for Transport's Project SPEED initiative. [23] It was reported that the cost-saving measures under consideration included and cutting initial service frequencies from two to one trains per hour and dropping the proposed Blyth Bebside station from initial project scope [23] (although the latter option was later publicly ruled out by Minister for Railways Chris Heaton-Harris). [24]
A planning application for the proposed new station at Bedlington was submitted to Northumberland County Council on 18 March 2021. [25] The submitted planning documents indicate that the new station will be constructed on the same site as the previous one, [26] with part of the extant original platform to be rebuilt for incorporation into a new [27] [28] 100 m (110 yd) [26] down (northbound) platform and the surviving station buildings retained. [29] An entirely new 100 m (110 yd) up (southbound) platform will be added on the opposite (west) side of the through lines, [27] [28] between Bedlington South Level Crossing and the junction with the line to Morpeth. [26] Passengers will be able to transfer between the two platforms using the existing level crossing. [26] The station will be served by two car parks: one with 36 spaces will be located immediately to the northeast of the up platform, while the other will have 31 spaces and will be located on the opposite (north) side of Barrington Road. [26]
Northumberland County Council submitted a Transport and Works Act Order application to the Secretary of State for Transport Grant Shapps on 26 May 2021, [30] [31] which was approved on 27 June 2022. [32] The council has been conferred certain additional powers deemed necessary for the new stations to be constructed and the line upgraded to carry regular passenger services. [33] The new Bedlington station will be constructed by the project's primary construction contractor, Morgan Sindall. [34] The main construction phase began in autumn 2022, [35] enabling an opening date in 2024. [34]
In January 2024, it was announced that the station had been delayed and would not open in 2024. [36]
Bedlington is a town and former civil parish in Northumberland, England, with a population of 18,470 measured at the 2011 Census.
Morpeth is a railway station on the East Coast Main Line, which runs between London King's Cross and Edinburgh Waverley. The station, situated 16 miles 50 chains north of Newcastle, serves the historic market town of Morpeth, Northumberland, England. It is owned by Network Rail and managed by Northern Trains.
Newcastle station is a railway station in Newcastle, Tyne and Wear, England, United Kingdom. It is located on the East Coast Main Line, around 268 miles (432 km) north of London King's Cross. It is the primary national rail station serving Newcastle upon Tyne and is an interchange for local services provided by the Tyne and Wear Metro network whose Central Station is situated beneath the national rail station. It is the busiest station in Tyne & Wear, as well as the busiest in North East England.
The North Tyneside Steam Railway and Stephenson Steam Railway are visitor attractions in North Shields, North East England. The museum and railway workshops share a building on Middle Engine Lane adjacent to the Silverlink Retail Park. The railway is a standard gauge line, running south for 2 miles (3.2 km) from the museum to Percy Main. The railway is operated by the North Tyneside Steam Railway Association (NTSRA). The museum is managed by Tyne and Wear Archives and Museums on behalf of North Tyneside Council.
Palmersville is a Tyne and Wear Metro station, serving the village of Holystone and suburb of Forest Hall, North Tyneside in Tyne and Wear, England. The station was opened in 1986 on the alignment of the former Blyth and Tyne Railway.
Northumberland Park is a Tyne and Wear Metro station, and planned future National Rail station, serving the village of Backworth and suburbs of Northumberland Park and West Allotment, as well as the nearby Cobalt Business Park, North Tyneside in Tyne and Wear, England. The station opened on 11 December 2005, on the alignment of the former Blyth and Tyne Railway.
The Blyth and Tyne Railway was a railway company in Northumberland, England, incorporated by act of Parliament on 30 June 1852. It was created to unify the various private railways and waggonways built to carry coal from the Northumberland coalfield to Blyth and the River Tyne, which it took control of on 1 January 1853. Over time, the railway expanded its network to reach Morpeth (1857/8), North Seaton (1859), Tynemouth (1860/1), Newcastle upon Tyne (1864), and finally Newbiggin-by-the-Sea (1872). It became part of the much larger North Eastern Railway in 1874.
Ashington is a town and civil parish in Northumberland, England, with a population of 27,864 at the 2011 Census. It was once a centre of the coal mining industry. The town is 15 miles (24 km) north of Newcastle upon Tyne, west of the A189 and bordered to the south by the River Wansbeck. Many inhabitants have a distinctive accent and dialect known as Pitmatic. This varies from the regional dialect known as Geordie.
Blyth railway station served Blyth, Northumberland on the Blyth Branch line in Northeast England.
Ashington is a railway station on the Northumberland Line, which runs between Newcastle and Ashington. The station serves the town of Ashington in Northumberland, England. It is owned by Network Rail and managed by Northern Trains.
This is a list of National Rail stations in the ceremonial county of Northumberland, England, with estimated usage figures gathered from data collected by the Office of Rail and Road (ORR). As of February 2023, there are 17 stations located along two lines in Northumberland, from which around 2.08 million passenger journeys were made from April 2021–March 2022. Both lines run perpendicular to each other and meet at Newcastle, with some services going from one line to the other.
South Gosforth Traction Maintenance Depot is a vehicle cleaning, maintenance and stabling facility used by the Tyne and Wear Metro, located in Gosforth, Newcastle upon Tyne in Tyne and Wear, England.
Newbiggin-by-the-Sea railway station, also referred to as Newbiggin station, served the town of Newbiggin-by-the-Sea, Northumberland, England from 1872 to 1964 on the Blyth and Tyne Railway.
Blyth Bebside is a railway station on the Northumberland Line, which is due to reopen in 2025, serving trains running between Newcastle and Ashington. The station will serve the town of Blyth and village of Bebside in Northumberland, England.
Newsham railway station served the village of Newsham near Blyth, England, from 1851 to 1964 on the Blyth and Tyne Railway. It was located at the junction of the Percy Main to Blyth and Bedlington lines of the Blyth and Tyne Railway. The station was closed by British Railways in 1964, but construction of a new station is underway.
Seaton Delaval is a railway station on the Northumberland Line, which runs between Newcastle and Ashington. The station serves the villages of Seaton Delaval and Seghill in Northumberland, England. It is owned by Network Rail and managed by Northern Trains.
Seghill railway station served the village of Seghill, Northumberland, England from 1841 to 1965 on the Blyth and Tyne Railway.
Woodhorn was a railway station proposed as part of the project to reintroduce passenger rail services onto the Ashington, Blyth & Tyne Railway which closed to passenger traffic in 1964. It was initially proposed that the newly reopened line could terminate at a new station, close to the Woodhorn Colliery Museum and Northumberland Archives, rather than at Ashington, the previous station however revised plans, released in July 2019 appear to have dropped Woodhorn station from project scope.
The Northumberland Line is a railway in North East England; it is aimed at reintroducing passenger rail services to freight-only lines in South East Northumberland. Under the scheme, a new passenger service links some of Northumberland's major population centres in Ashington and Blyth to the nearby city of Newcastle upon Tyne.
Preceding station | Disused railways | Following station | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
Bebside Line open; station closed | Blyth and Tyne Railway | Choppington Line open; station closed | ||
North Seaton Line open; station closed | ||||
Future services | ||||
Blyth Bebside | Northern Trains Northumberland Line | Ashington |