Fares for Northumberland Line announced as customers will pay no more than £3 for a single journey
Northern will offer a range of affordable fares to customers on the new Northumberland Line, ensuring they pay no more than £3 for a single journey along the entire route.
The train operator will be running services on the line when it reopens to passengers later this summer – for the first time since 1964 – as part of an ambitious project involving the Department for Transport, Network Rail, Northumberland County Council and Northern.
Services will call at Ashington, Newsham, Seaton Delaval, Manors and Newcastle when it opens, with a journey along the entire route taking around 35 minutes.
Stations in Bedlington, Blyth Bebside and Northumberland Park are under construction and due to open for customers next year.
Northern has introduced a simplified single-leg pricing structure to make sure customers can always find the cheapest option for their journey. It means they can buy a single ticket for half the price of a return.
The maximum peak-time single fare, for the full line from Ashington to Newcastle, 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.
Off-peak tickets start from £1.20
Customers travelling from Ashington can get a single to Newsham for just £1.60 during the off-peak period. They can reach Seaton Delaval for the same price or buy a £2.60 ticket to Newcastle.
At Newsham, customers can buy an off-peak single to Seaton Delaval for £1.20 or travel to Newcastle during that period for £2.
During off-peak periods, customers in Seaton Delaval can get to Newsham for £1.20, Ashington for £1.60 and Newcastle for £2.
Customers at Manors, which will be used as an interchange point until Northumberland Park opens, can purchase an off-peak single to Newcastle for £1.20, travel to Seaton Delaval or Newsham for £2, or get to Ashington for £2.60.
Jason Wade, regional director for Northern, said: “We’re proud to be offering affordable fares to people who will use our services to get to school, work and leisure activities.
“This is a transformational project that will connect communities across south east Northumberland, providing thousands of people who are fed up of sitting in traffic with a fast and great value alternative.
“After speaking to people living along the route, we’re delighted to hear that many are really excited for the line to open later this year.”
Northern 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 successful Pop ‘Pay As You Go’ payment system to purchase smart fares.
Northumberland County Council leader, Councillor Glen Sanderson, welcomed another milestone towards the re-opening of the line. He said: “Ensuring journey pricing is competitive and provides real value for money is crucial to the success of this scheme.
“Now we have the fare pricing confirmed it makes the opening of the Northumberland Line even more exciting.
“To see trains moving along the line that has been closed to passenger traffic for over 60 years is a hugely important step, not just for the county, but for the region and the UK to have this kind of huge investment open up rail travel in the coming months for so many people for the first time in decades.”
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.