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Widdrington Station

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Batman

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Does anyone know if there are currently any plans to introduce a regular service at the local stations on the East Coast Mainline in Northumberland?

At the moment the local stations only get one train a day into Newcastle in the morning peak and one train a day back in the early evening. I've heard that there is to be a new hourly Newcastle to Edinburgh semi-fast service starting in December 2019, but will this serve the sampler stations, or only the ones that currently get a regular service?

Peggswood and Widdrington are commuter villages that would certainly benefit from a regular rail service.

I'm only asking because I'm currently considering buying a house in Widdrington and an improved rail service will certainly help with commuting too and from Newcastle.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Wikipedia says there was a Newcastle to Berwick stopping service that was withdrawn by BR in 1991 due to a rolling stock shortage. Now that the Northern franchise is getting new trains, is there any chance of that service being re-introduced?
 
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30907

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I've not seen anything to suggest that Northern will extend more services north of Morpeth and Morpeth is the only station specifically mentioned WRT the new TPE Edinburgh service, so I wouldn't be optimistic.

The pre 1991 service was 5 down and 4 up per day BTW so nothing to write home about even then.

There is a lengthy thread on the Northern franchise if you care to seach it.
http://www.railforums.co.uk/showthread.php?t=124133&highlight=Arriva+Northern+franchise
 

Batman

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Thanks.

I'm surprised the new service will only call at Morpeth between Newcastle and Edinburgh, especially when there are other stations served by inter city services.

To be fair, the settlements served by the samaller stations probably aren't big enough to justify hourly calls in a longer distance service. Widdrington has a population of just 2,000 for example, Peggswood I think is a little bigger and Chathill and Acklington stations serve tiny hamlets.

So I imagine they'll probably withdraw the current 2 tpd Newcastle - Chathill service and add stops to the Newcastle - Edinburgh service. But this will probably only be 1 train arriving at Newcastle before 09:00 and 1 train departing Newcastle between 16:00 & 18:00 Monday to Saturday only.

Alnmouth, Berwick, Dunbar, the new station at East Linton and Musselburgh really should get hourly calls on this new service along with peak time calls at Manors and Cramlington.
 

30907

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I'm surprised the new service will only call at Morpeth between Newcastle and Edinburgh, especially when there are other stations served by inter city services.

I don't think that's necessarily the only call, but Morpeth will be the major beneficiary as at present it has very few long distance trains.
 

backontrack

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Alnmouth, Berwick, Dunbar, the new station at East Linton and Musselburgh really should get hourly calls on this new service along with peak time calls at Manors and Cramlington.

There are also plans for a new station at Reston to serve Eyemouth - which would arguably be served by this service, along with a stop at Belford (replacing Chathill) for Bamburgh and Seahouses. That would make sense:

Edinburgh Waverley
Musselburgh
East Linton
Dunbar
Reston
Berwick-upon-Tweed
Belford (1 train per 2 hours, alternates with Manors)
Alnmouth for Alnwick
Widdrington (1tp2h, alternates with Pegswood)
Pegswood (1tp2h, alternates with Widdrington)
Cramlington
Manors (1tp2h, alternates with Belford)
Newcastle Central
 
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