Plea for more trains at bypassed rural station

Campaigners met with local politicians at Chathill Station to push for improved services

Campaigners and local politicians have joined forces to call for extra train services at a barely used rural station.

Currently only two of the 140 trains a day passing through Chathill station in Northumberland stop there.

John Holwell, the lead campaigner for the Chathill Rail Action Group said: "Ideally we'd love to see multiple trains stopping here each day as this station doesn't only serve Chathill, it's for the whole of North East Northumberland."

The group, along with the local councillor and MP, is lobbying for eight trains to call at Chathill in both directions, offering a 40 minute connection to Newcastle and 55 minutes to Edinburgh.

The village only boasts a population of 40, but the station serves residents in Belford, Seahouses and Beadnell.

Guy Renner-Thompson, Conservative county councillor for the local Bamburgh ward, said of the rail link: "It's needed. We may only have a small area but we boast thousands of tourists each year and more services would be vital to connect our area."

Speaking at event organised by the action group, Renner-Thompson also said younger people would not have to relocate for jobs if they were able to travel to places such as Newcastle by train.

Scores of trains pass through Chathill every day, but only two stop

Earlier this year, pupils from Seahouses Primary School wrote to North East Mayor Kim McGuinness to detail the benefits of bringing more services to Chathill.

Labour MP for North Northumberland David Smith, who also attended the action group event, said: "It's been great to see people of all ages in the community coming together to push for new services and I will do all I can to lobby ministers to make that happen."

But Martin Gannon, Deputy Mayor for the North East Combined Authority, believes "funding could be an issue".

He said: "We've got to be realistic. We want to improve services across the North East but we are reliant on funds from central government and we must weigh up how that money is best spent."

Chathill is one of the least-used stations in the North East with just 1,264 passengers in the 12 months between April 2023 and March 2024, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

But Smith said additional services would see the station become more popular.

He pointed to the "incredibly successful" Northumberland Line in the south of the county.

It reopened last December and has already served more than 500,000 passengers.