Northumberland reopens 29 km Newcastle–Ashington line to passengers

The Northumberland Line, restored in December 2024 (29 km, about £300 million or €350 million, part-funded by the now discontinued Restoring Your Railways programme), brings passenger services back to Ashington and cuts the journey to Newcastle from over an hour by bus to 35 minutes. In its first year of operation Northern counted more than 920,000 journeys and expected to pass the one-million mark in early January 2026, far above forecasts; the stations at Bedlington and Northumberland Park were due to open in early 2026, according to the report. Shortly before 23 December 2025 Northumberland County Council applied for funding to extend the line to Newbiggin-by-the-Sea (about 6,000 inhabitants), where the section closed to passengers in 1964 and later dismantled would have to be rebuilt from scratch. The date is a placeholder: the article names only December 2024 as the month of reopening (LOK Report, 23 Dec 2025). Update (31 Mar 2026): With the opening of Bedlington station the Northumberland Line is fully in operation; Northern runs every 30 minutes during the day on weekdays and hourly in the evenings and on Sundays, and the council is examining an extension to Woodhorn and Newbiggin-by-the-Sea (LOK Report, 31 Mar 2026).