Train aims to put line back on track

Jun 6 2008 by Dave Black, The Journal

MORE than 100 important decision-makers will be on board a specially-chartered train this weekend when it makes a journey aimed at paving the way for the return of passenger services on a lost Northumberland line.

Hundreds of people will board Saturday’s Northern Rail train which will make three separate trips along the Ashington, Blyth and Tyne freight line as part of the long-running campaign to re-open it to travellers.

The first trip will include representatives of the rail industry, transport operator Nexus, regeneration agency SENNTRi, the business community and five local councils, together with the local MP and MEP.

They could all have a role to play in determining whether the political will and funding is in place to fully restore regular passenger services between Newcastle and Ashington on the line, which was axed in the Beeching cuts of the 1960s.

Saturday’s event has been organised by the South-East Northumberland Rail Users’ Group (SENRUG), with funding provided by Wansbeck District Council to charter the train. The train is being named The Ashington Future and will be the first passenger train to travel through the town for 40 years

The three journeys are aimed at demonstrating to decision makers that the line is maintained in full operational order and capable of carrying passenger trains.

Each trip starts at Morpeth then goes down the main East Coast line to Newcastle, back through Benton Junction, Northumberland Park, Seaton Delaval, Newsham, Bebside, Bedlington and on to Ashington, before reversing into Bedlington and running via Choppington back to Morpeth.

Yesterday, SENRUG chairman Dennis Fancett said: “The trip has generated a fantastic amount of interest. The first trip is reserved for stakeholders and will include more than 130 councillors and officers from Northumberland, Wansbeck, Blyth Valley, Morpeth and Newcastle.

“There will also be our MP, MEP and representatives from other relevant organisations such as Nexus and SENNTRI, the rail industry and local businesses. The second and third trips are for members of the public and the response has been overwhelming. Every available ticket was sold within days and there are none left.

“A lot of people are asking us if we are going to do this every year, but of course we hope the line will soon be re-opened permanently, so we won’t need to.”

The promotional tour of the line follows SENRUG’s online petition to 10 Downing Street which was signed by 1,292 people.