Alnmouth railway station

Alnmouth (also known as Alnmouth for Alnwick) is a railway station on the East Coast Main Line, which runs between London King's Cross and Edinburgh Waverley. The station, situated 34 miles 69 chains (34.9 miles; 56.1 kilometres) north of Newcastle, serves the coastal and rural villages of Alnmouth and Lesbury and the market town of Alnwick in Northumberland, England. It is owned by Network Rail and managed by Northern Trains.

Alnmouth Alnmouth for Alnwick
General information
Location	Alnmouth, Northumberland England
Coordinates	55°23′34″N 1°38′12″W
Grid reference	NU230110
Owned by	Network Rail
Managed by	Northern Trains
Platforms	2
Other information
Station code	ALM
Classification	DfT category E
History
Original company	York, Newcastle and Berwick Railway
Pre-grouping	North Eastern Railway
Post-grouping	London and North Eastern Railway British Rail (North Eastern Region)
Key dates
1 July 1847	Opened as Bilton
2 May 1892	Renamed Alnmouth
23 May 2003	Renamed Alnmouth for Alnwick
Passengers
2019/20	0.345 million
2020/21	61,222
2021/22	0.286 million
2022/23	0.331 million
2023/24	0.353 million
Location Alnmouth Location in Northumberland, England
Notes Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

History

The station was opened on 1 July 1847 as Bilton by the Newcastle and Berwick Railway^[1][2] and from 1854 run by the North Eastern Railway. On 19 August 1850 it became the junction for the Alnwick branch line and was significantly upgraded by the NER in 1887–88.^[3] On 2 May 1892 the station's name was changed to Alnmouth.^[1][4]

It became part of the London and North Eastern Railway during the Grouping of 1923. The station then passed on to the North Eastern Region of British Railways on nationalisation in 1948. The Alnwick branch service was withdrawn in January 1968, with freight traffic ending in October the same year. The station had an additional platform face on the 'down' (northbound) side for use by branch trains, but this lost its track in the early 1970s after the branch closed (along with the buildings on that side) and was removed altogether prior to the station being refurbished in 2004. The main building on the southbound platform is not original – it was erected in 1987 to replace the original structures constructed when the Alnwick branch opened in 1850.

When Sectorisation was introduced, the station was served by the Intercity Sector until the privatisation of British Rail.^{[citation needed]}

Facilities

Station buildings

The station is staffed, with the ticket office on platform 1 open every day of the week (06:40-18:15 Mon-Sat, 10:20-21:30 Sundays). A self-service ticket machine is also provided (this can be used to collect pre-paid tickets as well as for use when the booking office is closed). There is a waiting shelter and help point on platform 2 as well as a waiting room, vending machine and toilets on platform 1. Level access is available to both platforms via lifts in the footbridge. Train running information is offered via automated announcements, digital displays and timetable posters.^[5]

Services

v t e London North Eastern Railway
Legend
Inverness Carrbridge Aviemore Kingussie Newtonmore Blair Atholl Pitlochry Dunkeld & Birnam Perth Gleneagles Dunblane Stirling Falkirk Grahamston Aberdeen Stonehaven Montrose Arbroath Dundee Leuchars Kirkcaldy Inverkeithing Glasgow Central Motherwell Haymarket Edinburgh Waverley Dunbar Reston Berwick-upon-Tweed Alnmouth Morpeth Sunderland Newcastle Durham Darlington Middlesbrough Thornaby Northallerton Skipton Keighley Bradford Forster Square York Shipley Harrogate Horsforth Hull Paragon Brough Selby Leeds Wakefield Westgate Doncaster Retford Lincoln Newark Northgate Grantham Peterborough Stevenage London King's Cross

Northern Trains East Coast Main Line
v t e
Newcastle – Morpeth – Chathill
Newcastle Manors Cramlington Morpeth Pegswood Widdrington Acklington Alnmouth for Alnwick Chathill
Most services extend to/from Carlisle.

Services at Alnmouth are operated by Northern Trains, CrossCountry, London North Eastern Railway and TransPennine Express.

The station is generally served by a two-hourly CrossCountry service between Edinburgh Waverley and Plymouth via Birmingham New Street, with some northbound services extending to Glasgow Central and Aberdeen. The station is also served by a two-hourly London North Eastern Railway service between Edinburgh and London King's Cross, with some northbound services also extending to Glasgow Central and Aberdeen. These services combine to give a roughly hourly off-peak service with additional services during the peak hours.^[6][7]

Since December 2021, the station is also served by five trains per day between Edinburgh Waverley and Newcastle which are operated by TransPennine Express.^[6][8]

Northern Trains operate a limited service of four trains per day (two in the morning and two in the evening) northbound to Chathill and southbound to Newcastle. Both southbound services on weekdays and the morning service on Saturdays continue beyond Newcastle to Carlisle via Hexham.^[6][9]

The Aln Valley heritage railway has long-term ambitions of extending its running line to Alnmouth station^[10] from its current terminus at Greenrigg Halt.

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Morpeth or Newcastle		CrossCountry Cross Country Route		Berwick-upon-Tweed or Edinburgh Waverley
		London North Eastern Railway East Coast Main Line
Morpeth		TransPennine Express North TransPennine		Berwick-upon-Tweed
Acklington		Northern Trains East Coast Main Line Limited Service		Chathill
	Historical railways
Warkworth Line open, station closed		York, Newcastle and Berwick Railway		Lesbury Line open, station closed
Terminus		North Eastern Railway Alnwick branch line		Alnwick Line and station closed

References

1. Butt 1995, p. 34
2. Body 1989, p. 193
3. "A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE EAST COAST MAIN LINE IN NORTHUMBERLAND" Archived 13 May 2017 at the Wayback Machine Young, Alan Disused Stations Site Record; Retrieved 13 February 2017
4. Butt 1995, p. 15
5. Alnmouth station facilities Archived 11 February 2017 at the Wayback Machine National Rail Enquiries; Retrieved 8 February 2017
6. Table 26, 48, 51 National Rail timetable, May 2022
7. "LNER Train Timetable" (PDF). London North Eastern Railway. Retrieved 30 November 2022.
8. "TransPennine Express announces new rail services for Northumberland". International Railway Reviews. 3 September 2021. Archived from the original on 3 September 2021. Retrieved 3 September 2021.
9. "Train times: Alnmouth and Morpeth to Newcastle and Metrocentre" (PDF). Northern Trains. 12 December 2021. Archived (PDF) from the original on 3 November 2021. Retrieved 27 November 2021.
10. "About Us – Aln Valley Railway". Archived from the original on 20 August 2018. Retrieved 19 August 2018.

Sources

• Body, G. (1989). PSL Field Guides - Railways of the Eastern Region Volume 2: Northern operating area (1st ed.). Wellingborough: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 1-8526-0072-1. OCLC 59892452.

• Butt, R. V. J. (October 1995). The Directory of Railway Stations: details every public and private passenger station, halt, platform and stopping place, past and present (1st ed.). Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 978-1-85260-508-7. OCLC 60251199. OL 11956311M.
• Jowett, Alan (2000). Jowett's Nationalised Railway Atlas (1st ed.). Penryn, Cornwall: Atlantic Transport Publishers. ISBN 978-0-906899-99-1. OCLC 228266687.
• Jowett, Alan (March 1989). Jowett's Railway Atlas of Great Britain and Ireland: From Pre-Grouping to the Present Day (1st ed.). Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 978-1-85260-086-0. OCLC 22311137.

External links

• Train times and station information for Alnmouth railway station from National Rail