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Ashington railway station

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Coordinates: 55°10′55″N 1°34′23″W / 55.182°N 1.573°W / 55.182; -1.573
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Ashington
Ashington Railway Station
General information
LocationAshington, Northumberland
England
Coordinates55°10′55″N 1°34′23″W / 55.182°N 1.573°W / 55.182; -1.573
Owned byNational Rail (on reopening)
Managed byNorthern Trains (on reopening)
Platforms1[a]
Tracks1
Other information
StatusDisused
History
Original companyBlyth and Tyne Railway
Pre-groupingNorth Eastern Railway
Post-grouping
Key dates
1 March 1872Opened as Hirst (for Ashington)
1 October 1889Renamed Ashington
2 November 1964Closed
Autumn 2022Construction work begins
December 2024Proposed reopening
Location
Ashington is located in Northumberland
Ashington
Ashington
Location in Northumberland, England

Ashington, previously known as Hirst, is a railway station on the Northumberland Line which is due to reopen in December 2024.[1] Trains will run between Newcastle and Ashington. The station will serve the town of Ashington in Northumberland, England.

History

[edit]

The station was opened on 1 March 1872 as Hirst (for Ashington), serving the Newbiggin-by-the-Sea branch of the North Eastern Railway.

In 1874, the North Eastern Railway took over the Blyth and Tyne Railway, later becoming part of the London and North Eastern Railway in the 1923 grouping.

On nationalisation in 1948, ownership was passed to the North Eastern Region of British Railways.

The station was closed to passenger services on 2 November 1964, as part of the Reshaping of British Railways.

The station's signal box was closed on 14 February 2010, with the removal of the main line crossover. The signal box was demolished over the weekend of 10–11 August 2013.[citation needed]

The northbound platform was partially demolished in October 2022 to make space for the new Northumberland Line platform.[2]

Reopening proposals

[edit]

Proposals to reintroduce passenger rail services to the currently freight-only section of the former Blyth and Tyne Railway system have been discussed since the 1990s.[3][4][5]

In the early 2010s, Northumberland County Council (NCC) became interested in the proposals, commissioning Network Rail to complete a GRIP 1 study to examine the best options for the scheme in June 2013.[6] This report was published in March 2014 and was followed in June 2015 with the commissioning of a more detailed GRIP 2 study at a cost of £850,000.[7] The GRIP 2 study, published in October 2016, confirmed that the reintroduction of a frequent seven-day a week passenger service between Newcastle, Ashington and possibly a new terminus to the east, at Woodhorn, was feasible and could provide economic benefits of £70 million with more than 380,000 people using the line each year by 2034.[8] Despite a change in the political leadership of Northumberland County Council following the 2017 local elections[9] the authority continued to develop the project,[10] encouraged by the Department for Transport's November 2017 report, A Strategic Vision for Rail, which named the line as a possible candidate for a future reintroduction of passenger services.[11][12] Consequentially, NCC commissioned a further interim study in November 2017 (dubbed GRIP 2B) to determine whether high costs and long timescales identified in the GRIP 2 Study could be reduced by reducing the initial scope of the project, but the report failed to deliver on this.[13]

Nonetheless, the county council has continued to develop the project, hiring AECOM and SLC Rail as contractors to develop the scheme on their behalf in 2018[14] and allocating an additional £3.46 million in funding for a further business case and detailed design study[15] (equivalent to GRIP 3)[13] in February 2019.[15] Revised plans were revealed in July 2019 which were reduced in scope from the 2016 GRIP 2 study and proposed 4-phase project[16] to reduce the initial cost of the scheme. Phase 1 (at an estimated cost of £90 million)[15] would have seen hourly passenger trains[14] return to a reopened Ashington station and new turn-back facilities provided to allow trains to terminate there while later phases would have added additional stations and the infrastructure upgrades provided elsewhere on the line[16] to provide a half-hourly frequency.[14] However, in August 2020, it was reported that these four proposed phases might be merged into a single one.[17]

The North East Joint Transport Committee's bid for £377 million of funding from the UK Government's £1.28 billion Transforming Cities Fund, submitted on 20 June 2019, includes £99 million to fund the reintroduction of passenger services between Newcastle and Ashington,[18] while further work is ongoing to secure additional public and private investment for the project.[19]

The Department for Transport allocated an initial grant of £1.5 million towards the project costs in January 2020[20] which was supplemented by an allocation of £10 million of funds from Northumberland County Council the following month.[14] This funding enabled AECOM to begin detailed on-site ground investigation works in October 2020.[21] The allocation of a further £34 million of UK Government funding for the project in January 2021 enables the necessary land to be purchased, detailed designs to be prepared and some early preparatory and site works to begin.[22] In January 2021, it was anticipated that the UK Government would fund the remainder of the project cost, estimated at £166 million as of January 2021, once the final phase of design works were completed.[23] However, in April 2021, it was reported that government officials were seeking to reduce the cost of the project as part of the Department for Transport's Project SPEED initiative.[24] It was reported that the cost-saving measures under consideration included and cutting initial service frequencies from two to one trains per hour and dropping the proposed Blyth Bebside station from initial project scope[24] (although the latter option was later publicly ruled out by Minister for Railways Chris Heaton-Harris).[25]

A planning application for the new station was submitted to Northumberland County Council on 3 February 2021.[26] The submitted planning documents indicate that the station will have a single 100 m (110 yd) bay platform,[27] located on a short siding[28] which will be recessed into part of the original down (northbound) platform (requiring its partial demolition).[29] It will be accessible from the adjacent Station Yard Car Park (to be expanded to a capacity of 275 cars) and will be linked to the existing Wansbeck Square Footbridge, via a new lift, to provide access to the eastern side of the through lines.[27]

Northumberland County Council submitted a Transport and Works Act Order application to the Secretary of State for Transport Grant Shapps on 26 May 2021,[30][31] which was approved on 27 June 2022.[32] The council has been conferred certain additional powers deemed necessary for the new stations to be constructed and the line upgraded to carry regular passenger services.[33] The new Ashington station will be constructed by the project's primary construction contractor, Morgan Sindall.[34] The main construction phase began in autumn 2022, enabling an opening date in 2024.[34]

Construction of the new station and car park is now completed and is expected to be ready in time for the line opening in December 2024. [35]

Services

[edit]
Northern Trains
Northumberland Line
 Newcastle
Tyne and Wear Metro
 Manors
Tyne and Wear Metro
 Northumberland Park      
Tyne and Wear Metro
 Seaton Delaval
Newsham
Blyth Bebside
Bedlington
Ashington

Weekday and Saturday daytime services are expected to operate twice-hourly, with an hourly service during the evening and on Sunday, with an end-to-end journey time between Newcastle and Ashington of around 35 minutes.[36] All services are expected to be operated by Northern Trains.

(Expected) rolling stock used: Class 156 Super Sprinter and Class 158 Express Sprinter

Notes

[edit]
  1. ^ The former station consisted of 2 platforms, but is expected reopen in December 2024 with 1 platform.

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "Passenger rail service confirmed for 2024 opening". Northumberland County Council. 16 January 2024. Retrieved 9 April 2024.
  2. ^ "Ashington works". Northumberland Line. 10 October 2022. Retrieved 27 October 2022.
  3. ^ Denis Murphy; et al. (10 January 2007). "Ashington, Blyth and Tyne Railway". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). United Kingdom: House of Commons. col. 135WH–139WH.
  4. ^ "Connecting Communities – Expanding Access to the Rail Network" (PDF). London: Association of Train Operating Companies. June 2009. p. 17. Retrieved 7 September 2018.
  5. ^ Graham, Hannah (24 January 2021). "'They said it was impossible': Campaigners celebrate success in 15-year Northumberland railway fight - Chronicle Live". Chronicle Live. Retrieved 25 January 2021.
  6. ^ "The Journal: Ashington Blyth and Tyne rail line restoration scheme gets green light". Archived from the original on 12 March 2017. Retrieved 10 March 2017.
  7. ^ "New Post Leader: Plans for rail line reach milestone". Archived from the original on 12 March 2017. Retrieved 10 March 2017.
  8. ^ "Chronicle Live: Reopening of Newcastle to Ashington rail link moves one step closer". Retrieved 10 March 2017.
  9. ^ Kelly, Mike; Muncaster, Michael (5 May 2017). "Northumberland local elections results IN FULL - council held by Tories in 'straw draw' drama - Chronicle Live". Chronicle Live. Retrieved 22 July 2019.
  10. ^ Graham, Hannah (1 June 2018). "Northumberland's draft local plan unveiled: What it means for houses, jobs and the green belt - Chronicle Live". Chronicle Live. Retrieved 22 July 2019.
  11. ^ Connecting people: a strategic vision for rail (PDF). Department for Transport. November 2017. ISBN 9781528601252. Retrieved 22 July 2019.
  12. ^ Allen, Andrew (12 December 2017). "What's in the government's new rail strategy? | CityMetric". CityMetric. Archived from the original on 22 July 2019. Retrieved 22 July 2019.
  13. ^ a b "SENRUG - South East Northumberland Rail User Group: Re-open Ashington Blyth & Tyne Line". SENRUG - South East Northumberland Rail User Group. Archived from the original on 8 April 2019. Retrieved 22 April 2019.
  14. ^ a b c d "£162m Northumberland Line scheme moves to design phase". The Construction Index. 14 May 2020. Retrieved 25 May 2020.
  15. ^ a b c O'Connell, Ben (28 February 2019). "Phasing of proposed Northumberland rail line explained after concerns raised | News Post Leader". News Post Leader. Retrieved 22 July 2019.
  16. ^ a b O'Connell, Ben (15 July 2019). "Six new stations could open if Ashington to Newcastle passenger trains resume - Chronicle Live". Chronicle Live. Retrieved 22 July 2019.
  17. ^ "Northumberland line could reopen in one phase | News Post Leader". News Post Leader. 15 August 2020. Retrieved 25 January 2021.
  18. ^ Holland, Daniel (19 June 2019). "North East's £377m transport funding bid confirmed - but leaders say there is more to come - Chronicle Live". Chronicle Live. Retrieved 22 July 2019.
  19. ^ "Northumberland Line could reopen for passengers in 2022 | Rail Engineer". Rail Engineer. 28 March 2019. Archived from the original on 22 July 2019. Retrieved 22 July 2019.
  20. ^ Sharma, Sonia (28 January 2020). "How plans to re-open Newcastle to Ashington railway line could boost region". North East Chronicle. Retrieved 26 February 2020.
  21. ^ Kennedy, Catherine (26 October 2020). "Ground investigation underway to convert Northumberland Line for passenger services - New Civil Engineer". New Civil Engineer. Retrieved 25 January 2021.
  22. ^ Burroughs, David (23 January 2021). "£794m package to reopen British lines unveiled | International Railway Journal". International Railway Journal. Retrieved 21 January 2021.
  23. ^ O'Connell, Ben (23 January 2021). "Government confirms £34million for Northumberland Line - Rail Minister says he's 'lucky to be reopening train lines' | Northumberland Gazette". Northumberland Gazette. Retrieved 25 January 2021.
  24. ^ a b Walker, Jonathan (16 April 2021). "Planned new Northumberland rail line is being cut back before work has even begun - Chronicle Live". Chronicle Live. Retrieved 2 July 2021.
  25. ^ Sharma, Sonia (25 April 2021). "Minister confirms plans for all six stations on Northumberland rail line are on track - Chronicle Live". Chronicle Live. Retrieved 2 July 2021.
  26. ^ "21/00387/CCD | Construction of a new single platform railway station including pedestrian lift, new highway access; modifications to existing highways including pedestrian footways; provision of parking for cars, electric vehicles, motorcycles, cycles, and taxis and other associated works including new crossings for pedestrians and cyclists. Construction of facilities ancillary to the station including, lighting, soft and hard landscaping, surface and subsurface drainage, utilities and other services, boundary treatment and other associated works. | Station Yard Car Park North Wansbeck Square Station Road Ashington Northumberland NE63 9XH". Northumberland County Council. Retrieved 15 March 2021.
  27. ^ a b Healey, Alannah; Gillan, Peter (23 February 2021). "21/00387/CCD - PLANNING STATEMENT" (PDF). Northumberland County Council. Retrieved 15 March 2021.
  28. ^ "21/00387/CCD - PROPOSED GENERAL ARRANGEMENT" (PDF). Northumberland County Council. 23 February 2021. Retrieved 15 March 2021.
  29. ^ Scott, Gillian (3 February 2021). "21/00387/CCD - HERITAGE STATEMENT" (PDF). Northumberland County Council. Retrieved 15 March 2021.
  30. ^ Smith, Ian (28 May 2021). "New application seeks authorisation for return of passenger rail services on the Northumberland Line | New Post Leader". New Post Leader. Retrieved 2 July 2021.
  31. ^ "Northumberland County Council - Northumberland Line". Northumberland County Council. Retrieved 2 July 2021.
  32. ^ "Transport and Works Act 1992: Application for Proposed Northumberland Line Order" (PDF). GOV.UK. 27 June 2022. Retrieved 27 October 2022.
  33. ^ O'Connor, Duncan (26 May 2021). "Northumberland Line TWAO Application Letter" (PDF). Northumberland County Council. Retrieved 2 July 2021.
  34. ^ a b Horgan, Rob (9 August 2021). "Morgan Sindall to build six new stations for Northumberland line restoration | New Civil Engineer". New Civil Engineer. Retrieved 11 August 2021.
  35. ^ "Signalling goes live on new rail line". BBC News. BBC. Retrieved 15 April 2024.
  36. ^ "The Northumberland Line project". Network Rail. Retrieved 9 April 2024.

Sources

[edit]
[edit]
Preceding station National Rail National Rail Following station
  Historical railways  
North Seaton
Line open; station closed 		  Blyth and Tyne Railway   Newbiggin-by-the-Sea
Line and station closed
  Future services  
Bedlington
towards Newcastle 		  Northern Trains
Northumberland Line 		  Terminus
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