The Northumberland Coast Loop: ‘Connecting Coast, Castles, and Coalfield Communities’ by rail.
Starting at Newcastle Central, this proposed rail route would share the soon to open Northumberland Line as far as Bedlington, then run via the Hepscott Line and Morpeth North Curve, then joining the East Coast Main Line at Morpeth North Junction. From there, the line would run northwards to Pegswood, Alnmouth (for Alnwick) Berwick-Upon-Tweed, and potentially places beyond.
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History
The first proposal for the route was made in February 2023; then referred to as the Northumberland Loop Line.
A change.org petition titled ‘Create the ‘Northumberland Loop’ – Rail services from Berwick to Newcastle via Blyth‘ was launched in October 2023 and was closed a year later in October 2024, after gaining 741 signatures.
In December 2023, the proposal was renamed to the Northumberland Coast Loop, to better detail the proposed area that the route would cover, largely hugging the Northumberland Coastline from the Berwick and the River Tweed on the Scottish Border, down to the River Tyne at Newcastle.
On 13th February 2025, a new petition was launched, titled ‘Start a Newcastle – Edinburgh Rail Service via Blyth Bebside and Northumberland Park‘ reflecting the evolution of the campaign to form a new InterCity route between Newcastle and Edinburgh via Bedlington. As of the start of December 2025, this petition has attracted 1037 signatures, and is continuing to grow! If you can, please sign the petition.
Proposal
The proposal would centre around using the existing, but less well known rail route between Newcastle and Berwick, where, south of Pegswood, would take the alternative route via Bedlington, rather than the more established route via Morpeth and Cramlington.
This would work to enhance the connectivity between the densely populated South East of Northumberland, and the more rural North Northumberland, as well as creating direct rail links into Scotland.
The pattern for Northumberland Coast Loop services could be modest initially, with four local services and four semi-fast services in each direction per day, this giving a total of sixteen trains per day in total.
These would be evenly spread across a wide service span of approx 6am to 10pm, giving a frequency of a service every two hours or so at semi-fast stations, and every 4-5 at local only stations.
This would be in conjunction with any other services running on the East Coast Main Line (ECML), the Northumberland Line or the section between Pegswood and Bedlington.
Learn More
Please visit our About the Northumberland Coast Loop page to find out more details.
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