Morpeth Avoiding Line

[Western Sunset]

Just wondering if the LNER ever planned an avoiding line at Morpeth, similar to the Frome and Westbury cut-offs on the GWR?

Regards,
Peter

 

[swt_passenger]

Just wondering if the LNER ever planned an avoiding line at Morpeth, similar to the Frome and Westbury cut-offs on the GWR?

Regards,
Peter

It never came up at all in the various recent discussions about such a line, I suspect it would have been mentioned if it had ever been proposed:
https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/morpeth-curve.179566/#post-3918169
(That’s not the only thread where it was discussed, there’ve been a few this year.)
IIRC the topography is against it, and another difficult river crossing would have been needed.

Of slightly more relevance, the initially planned route would have been much nearer the coast, roughly aligned north/south through Bedlington, and Morpeth would not have been on the mainline at all, but the town campaigned successfully to be served by through trains, which required the severely curved route that was built. But that’s a totally different alignment rather than an avoiding line.