After a brief catch-up with Ian Lavery, MP for Ashington and Blyth, I was off to County Hall for a meeting with Network Rail and the County Council, to discuss our proposals for the Newcastle – Berwick local service, to run every hour both ways, and to call at every station. It seems our original Feasibility Study must be revisited (we’ve had Covid in the meantime, and of course we now know what the new East Coast Main Line timetable will look like from December 2025), but I’m convinced these service will continue to be both commercially viable and technically feasible. The meeting was positive enough, though I was concerned Network Rail couldn’t articulate the process for getting a new service established. But hopefully it is now clearly understood this is a clear requirement from local stakeholders and we can expect some action.
