As of the December 2019 change, Northern Trains run three trains per hour along the Tyne Valley Line between Newcastle and Hexham, with two trains per hour continuing to Carlisle.[3][4]
Predominantly, rolling stock on the Tyne Valley Line consists of Class 156 and Class 158diesel multiple units, both of which were introduced in to service in the late 1980s.
Class 142 Pacer trains also served the line until their withdrawal from passenger service in 2020.[5]
The Class 156 and 158 units operating on the Tyne Valley Line are currently in the process of being refurbished, with upgrades including free WiFi, power sockets, on-board passenger information displays, and an interior refresh.[6][7]
The Tyne Valley Line is also used for freight, and is an important diversionary route at times when the East Coast Main Line is closed. The line, however, is not electrified.
An Act for making and maintaining a Railway or Tramroad from the Town of Newcastle-upon-Tyne in the County of the Town of Newcastle-upon-Tyne to the City of Carlisle in the County of Cumberland, with a Branch thereout.
The line was built in sections from 1834 onwards. The first section of the line (running between Hexham and Blaydon) opened in March 1835. Services were soon temporarily suspended, until May 1835, after a local landowner objected to the use of locomotives (this being specifically prohibited by the Act of Parliament).[8]
The entire route between Carlisle London Road and Redheugh in Gateshead was formally opened to passengers on 18 June 1838. A temporary bridge over the River Tyne was built at Scotswood, in order to allow trains to reach a terminus at Forth Banks in Newcastle, with this section of the line opening on 21 October 1839. The line was later extended to Newcastle Central, with the first service operating on 1 January 1851.
In 1982, British Rail closed the Scotswood Bridge,[9] which had become uneconomic to maintain. Trains on the Tyne Valley Line from Newcastle were diverted to use the present route, crossing the King Edward VII Bridge to the south-west of the station, before running through Dunston and Blaydon, on an upgraded section of the original route along the south bank of the Tyne that had previously been freight-only since the 1850s.[10]
The line near Carlisle was badly damaged in October 2022 when a freight train derailed.[11]
A diversion at Corbridge, opened on 27 May 1962, allowed straightening of the line to remove a 45 mph (70 km/h) speed limit and the closure of the 510-foot (160 m) long Farnley Scar Tunnel, which was in need of further reinforcement.[12]
The line followed the course of a waggonway between North Wylam and Lemington Staithes, which had been in operation since 1748 and was used for taking coal from the collieries in Wylam and Walbottle to a part of the river which could be accessed by keel boats.[13]
On 13 May 1876, the line between Newburn and North Wylam opened, with the final section of the branch between North Wylam and the West Wylam Junction opening in October 1876.
On 15 September 1958, the stations at Newburn, Lemington and Heddon-on-the-Wall closed to passengers, with the latter also closing to goods on that day.
On 4 January 1960, Lemington closed to goods traffic, with Newburn closing to goods traffic on 24 April 1965. Scotswood followed, closing to goods two days later.
Between 1965 and 1966, this line carried all rail traffic between Newcastle and Carlisle, while a section of the main line between Scotswood and Blaydon was closed.
Elswick closed to passengers on 2 January 1967, with Scotswood closing to passengers on 1 May 1967. The last station on the line to remain open, North Wylam, closed along with the rest of the line on 11 March 1968.[14]
The track between Newburn and Wylam Railway Bridge was removed in 1975, and the course was landscaped and made into a public bridleway. The track between Scotswood and Newburn remained, in order to take rail traffic to and from Stella North Power Station, as well as the BEREC factory in Newburn. The track was later removed, following the closure of the factory in 1992.[15]
Branch lines
Originally, the railway had four passenger branch lines leading off it:
The Border Counties Railway branched off just west of Hexham, passing through Kielder and the North Tyne Valley, before joining up with the Scottish rail network at Riccarton Junction. It was also linked to the Wansbeck Valley Railway, which ran from Reedsmouth to Morpeth, and connected to the branch line from Rothbury. The Border Counties Railway closed to passengers in 1956, and to all other traffic in 1958 (five years before the Beeching Axe). A small section of track between Reedsmouth and Bellingham was retained, accessed from the Wansbeck Valley Railway, until the latter shut in the mid-1960s. Some of the former trackbed is now lost beneath Kielder Reservoir, although the disused Kielder Viaduct remains a prominent local landmark.
The Allendale branch ran south-west from Hexham Junction, and was primarily used to carry minerals from mines and quarries around Allendale and the village of Langley. The line never proved popular, with passenger services ending in 1930, and closing completely in 1953.
The Alston branch covered 17 miles (27 km), running from the town of Haltwhistle. This branch provided a passenger service and also, in the early days, served the hundreds of lead mines in the upper South Tyne Valley. It included the monumental Lambley Viaduct, and was the last of the branch lines to close in 1976. Part of the former line between Slaggyford and Alston now operates as a narrow gaugeheritage railway, the South Tynedale Railway.
There was a short branch (closed to passengers in 1923) from Brampton to Brampton Town. The junction of this railway, Brampton Junction, also linked to Lord Carlisle's Railway, a primarily industrial branch line, pre-dating the Newcastle & Carlisle Railway, which also linked into the Alston branch at Lambley.
^Hoole, Ken (1965). The North East – A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain – Volume IV. Newton Abbot: David & Charles. pp. 196–197. ISBN0-7153-7746-9.
^Body, G. (1988). Railways of the Eastern Region Volume 2. Wellingborough: Patrick Stephens Ltd. p. 133. ISBN1-85260-072-1.
Butt, R. V. J. (1995). The Directory of Railway Stations. Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN1-85260-508-1.
Grainger, Richard (1836). A Proposal for Concentrating the Termini of the Newcastle & Carlisle, Great North of England & proposed Edinburgh Railways. Hodgson. A short pamphlet plus fold-out map. The original from which reference has been made is in the North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers. It is reference Tracts vol 57 p200ff This contains a great deal about the early period of N&CR activity in Newcastle/Gateshead.
Whittle, G. (1979). The Newcastle & Carlisle Railway. Newton Abbot: David & Charles. ISBN0-7153-7855-4.
Young, Alan (2003). Railways in Northumberland. Pudsey: Martin Bairstow. ISBN1-871944-26-0.
