Northern has announced that tickets for Northumberland Line services are now on sale.
The line will reopen to passengers – for the first time in 60 years – thanks to a £298.5m redevelopment involving the Department for Transport, Network Rail, Northumberland County Council and Northern.
When it opens on Sunday, 15 December, services will call at stations in Newcastle, Manors, Seaton Delaval and Ashington, with a journey along the entire route taking around 35 minutes.
Northern will run two daytime services an hour from Monday to Saturday and one train per hour in the evenings and on Sundays.
The maximum peak-time single fare – for the trip from Newcastle to Ashington – is £3 and a return trip costs £6. An off-peak single for the same journey is £2.60 and a return is £5.20.
Tickets can now be bought from ticket vending machines and over the counter at ticket offices. They will go on sale on the Northern website and app tomorrow morning.
Paul Henry, programme manager for the Northumberland Line, said: “We are ready to bring passenger services back to south east Northumberland for the first time in 60 years and delighted to announce that tickets are now on sale.
“Turning an old freight line into a modern-day railway that can be used by thousands of passengers has been a hugely complex and challenging for everyone involved.
“But we are excited that locals will be able to benefit from fast, affordable and reliable services when they begin running on December 15.”
Stations in Newsham, Bedlington, Blyth Bebside and Northumberland Park remain under construction and are due to open in 2025.
Northern has introduced a simplified single-leg pricing structure to make sure customers can always find the cheapest option for their journey along the Northumberland Line. It means they can buy a single ticket for half the price of a return.
The train operator has also worked with Nexus, the public body which runs Tyne and Wear Metro, and Northumberland County Council to provide integrated fares for multi-modal journeys.
Customers will be able to seamlessly switch between Metro and Northern services by using the North East’s Pop ‘Pay As You Go’ system to purchase smart fares.
Northern remains focused on running services along the 18-mile line and its traincrew training programme is well underway.
The train operator is working to ensure there will be 82 conductors qualified to work on the Northumberland Line.
It has also recruited 20 new drivers to work on the line and there is a plan to ensure more than 100 are trained to safely operate these services.
Northern is the second largest train operator in the UK, with 2,500 services a day to more than 500 stations across the North of England.
