The plans for the railway were launched in 1997 with the intention of taking main-line steam back into Alnwick Station. However this would have involved the provision of a ‘heavy’ bridge over the dual carriageway A1 to the east of Alnwick and a further ‘heavy’ bridge over South Road in Alnwick – the old Great North Road. Much funding was obtained, but in the end not enough.
A further set-back occurred in 2002 when application was made to Northumberland County Council for a Modification Order to add a footpath along the trackbed east of the A1 to the Definitive Footpath map. The county council did make an order but after a public inquiry last November the Inspector refused to confirm the order.
In the meantime the committee rethought the plans and now proposes to site the main Alnwick station in the field adjacent to the trackbed to the east of the A1 near the Lionheart business park. This will provide ample space for parking and suitable buildings for the visitor experience, with good road access from the South Road/A1 interchange. From here steam trains will eventually run down to Alnmouth station, a scenic run of some 3 miles. We propose to proceed in stages. We begin with some 200-300 yards of track at Lionheart – this will enable us to show we have made a start. We will then lay some further mile and a half of track down to Greenrigg bridge, which is the first point where we encounter a public road or footpath. We only need planning permission for this bit. To go further we need a parliamentary piece of paper called a Transport and Works Order – which will be expensive. Once we have that, we can proceed down to the old branch platform at Alnmouth, with cross-platform transfer to the main line for passengers. Our plans include for the other side of the trackbed to be a permissive Sustrans cyclepath, which will connect the national coastal cycle route safely to Alnwick.
Looking further ahead, we may consider extending into Alnwick using an ‘ultra-light’ tramway approach, and also the possibility of a park-and ride operation. We could cross the A1 on a lightweight bridge shared with the Sustrans cycle track and the South Road would be crossed at street level with a light-controlled crossing. Thus we remove a large part of the civil costs of the original scheme.
However we have a problem with levels. The original track has a gradient of 1 in 75 prevailing. To get up the deviation to Lionheart we have to climb at 1 in 50 from the existing trackbed and to achieve this entails excavation at Lionheart and raising the embankment on the old trackbed. In short, we need quite a lot of earth-moving!
We received a grant from our local Strategic Partnership to commission a team from the International Centre at Manchester Metropolitan University to carry out a commercial feasibility study. This was completed last March and shows that our line could break even on as few as 10,000 trips/year. We have the great advantage that Northumberland Estates, who now own the trackbed, are prepared to lease it to us at a very reasonable rent, so our balance sheet will not be burdened with large land acquisition costs before we start.
Negotiation of a lease for the trackbed from Northumberland Estates is in hand as are discussions with Alnwick District Council for planning permission. We also need to ensure our plans are in line with ROGS regulations. On the practical front work is needed at our Longhoughton yard on overhauling our rail plant, and on sorting out rail material for our initial track laying. We are also working on rolling stock for our initial operation.
All volunteers welcome!!
Tom Spence