Construction work at our new station at Newsham is moving at pace and we thought we'd take the opportunity to look back at the old station and share some images of the new station. We’d like to thank local rail historian Ed Orwin for his help and allowing us to use images from his collection.
The first evidence of the station opening was in Summer 1851, but it may have opened a year earlier when passenger services were introduced on the line to Bedlington. The previous station was to the North of the new station (between Plessey Road & South Newsham Road level crossings) and it had 3 platforms with a tiled subway to access the northbound platform. As well as trains towards Newcastle and Ashington, there was also a branch line into Blyth. Our new station will have two platforms with a footbridge with lifts for customers to get from one side of the line to the other.
The journey time from Newsham to Newcastle was around 41 minutes back in 1887 and whilst that reduced to 36 minutes during the 1950's, the trains also terminated at Manors. When passenger trains return later this Summer, the journey time from Newsham to Newcastle's Central Station will be just 24 minutes.
Back in 1887, there were only 5 trains per weekday from Newsham to Newcastle and the service was hourly back in the 1950's. When passenger services return later this Summer, we'll have two trains per hour on Monday to Saturday daytimes and an hourly service on evenings and Sundays. The new service will be more frequent and faster as well as having fully accessible trains with free onboard WiFi.
Newsham was generally one of the busier stations on the line, with recorded passenger numbers of 133,659 back in 1911 with that reducing to 61,499 tickets sold in 1951. When the line was earmarked for closure in 1964, there were only 174 regular customers using the station. The final passenger train ran on Saturday 30th October from Blyth to Newbiggin via Newsham.
Your new Newsham station is really taking shape and it will feature:
Full access to people with reduced mobility
114 Parking Spaces (of which 9 spaces will be for Blue Badge Users & 8 spaces for EV Charging)
Bike Storage
CCTV Cameras
Seating and Shelter
Ticket Machines
Audio Frequency Induction Loops
Audio & Visual Information on Train departures and arrivals
Thanks to Morgan Sindall & Gareth Williams Photography for some of the recent images of the new Newsham station