Benton Junction

View Larger Map

If the HTML works, you should see a Google Maps picture of Benton Junction.

It used to be a major rail junction, back in the days when connectedness and local services were a British Rail priority.

Nowadays, when journey times for Inter City trains are the number one priority, it's a bottle neck.

The first problem is simply that you have a much wider range of train speeds today than previously. It's as if the A1 had trucks tractors and private cars, with the private cars allowed to do up to 120mph. Oh, and a braking distance measured in miles, not metres.

Let's take a walk through the map. Benton Junction is where the Metro line to the coast crosses the East Coast Main Line. Until Metro was created the line to the coast was part of the British Rail network.

See the green arrow? Below and to the right of that you can see the curves of the Ashington Blyth and Tyne line. If you explore this further useing the images in Google maps you can see a freight train on the AB&T. The AB&T actually passes under the Metro line before running alongside it to Northumberland Park. Yo can see that in the top right of the image.

Below and to the left of the green arrow is what used to be a chord from the ECML up to what is now the Metro line. It's just a shadowy line of trees now.

Above and to the left of the green arrow is what used to be a chord from the Metro line to the ECML. That's used as Metro sidings now.

I've no knowledge of whether the curve to the top right of the green arrow ever existed, but it doesn't now. As a run round from the ECML to the AB&T it would serve no useful purpose I imagine, and BR had a terrible habit of vandalizing or lifting anything they couldn't think of a use for, which is why the AB&T is single track at its lower end.

Anyway, Benton Junction.

Let's go back to the AB&T, bottom right of the junction. If a train's running north from Newcastle to go up the AB&T it has to turn across the ECML. So not only is it runnign slowly up the northbound ECML, but traffic has to stop on the ECML to let it turn right up the AB&T. So either trains back up behind it while it waits for a slot to turn right, or southbound trains have to be held up.

That's why there's so little capacity for a Blyth to Newcastle service via the AB&T, because to do it at peak times means delaying intercity trains, and that's a sin in the modern railway world that seeks to compete with airlines. Even one train an hour from the AB&T onto the ECML might be too much. In case you think this is an exaggeration have a look at this story from the Morpeth Herald - a popular well used service from Cramlington to Manors and Newcastle was retimetabled to the point of being useless for commuters to make way for long distance services. SENRUG, overjoyed at a new service for Morpeth in the same package, didn't notice the needs of Cramlington commuters until the problem was pointed out to them.

There isn't an easy or practical solution to the Benton junction problem. A graded junction (using the railway equivalent of a flyover) might be an option, but I can't imagine a business solution that would make this possible without the kind of investment you only get for mainline rail in London. It might make sense to build a Morpeth avoiding mainline to eliminate the Morpeth curve and grow ECML capacity, but that would almost certainly be at the expense of capacity for local trains on the AB&T.

Essentially, all the heavty rail solutions to the problems connecting Blyth and the Seaton Valley to the jobs market of Tyneside have been considered, and what stands out is the need for a solution that integrates with Metro and which sets passengers free form congestion plagued buses. Add to that the lack of capacity at Benton Junction, and you come to the conclusion that Metro for Blyth and South East Northumberland is the only answer.