What Northumberland hoped for in 2003 (or why it's always only been one train an hour)

The Council has supported a strategy for some years to enhance the number of long-distance intercity trains calling at Morpeth and Alnmouth, thus widening the range of destinations available. It has also been a specific aspiration to improve travel opportunities between the east coast stations at Morpeth, Alnmouth and Berwick, which are currently not effectively linked to one another. This strategy has received endorsement in the A1 Multi-Modal Study completed on behalf of the Government Office for the North East. The Council is therefore presented with an opportunity through the Route Utilisation Strategy to argue the case again for additional stops at these stations by the long distance train operators.

7.3 If the provision of additional inter-city calls at Morpeth, Alnmouth, and additionally Cramlington, could be secured then there would be a reduced requirement for local trains on the route currently operated by Arriva Trains Northern. If sufficient intercity trains could be timetabled to provide an hourly service at these principal stations, the local train service might be reduced to just the one train in each peak period which also serves the intermediate village stations at Chathill, Acklington, Widdrington Station and Pegswood. This in turn could release capacity for ABT line trains between Benton Junction and Newcastle without expenditure on additional capacity or delay to the project.

7.4 To develop this strategy for the widest possible benefit of residents in the county and for the commercial benefit of the train operators would require the Council also to adopt complementary policies:

• to upgrade Cramlington station to Inter-city standard;
• to improve park and ride facilities at Alnmouth station (already in the LTP programme) and at Morpeth;
• to provide integrated bus links to Alnmouth station from Alnwick and the surrounding area.

7.5 In principle this strategy has already received support from the Government Office for the North-East and the Council has been encouraged to develop LTP bids for this strategy if the SRA adopts the train operating policy proposed in this report.

From a report published ion February 2003