North Tyneside Loop

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The North Tyneside Loop refers to the railway lines in North Tyneside from Newcastle upon Tyne via Wallsend, North Shields, Whitley Bay, Backworth, Benton and South Gosforth back to Newcastle. It emerged as two competing railways were built from Newcastle to Tynemouth, the Newcastle & North Shields Railway (via Wallsend and North Shields) and the Blyth & Tyne Railway (via Benton and Whitley Bay). Initially both had separate stations at both Newcastle and Tynemouth, but later both were extended to start at Newcastle Central Station and to connect at a new through station in Tynemouth, thus allowing a through service.

The line was electrified (as the Tyneside Electric) by the North Eastern Railway in 1904 to fight competition from the newly-built electric tramways, but de-electrified in the 1960s. In the early 1980s it was converted to form the Tyne and Wear Metro. Both lines were diverted underground on the approach to Newcastle, so that the line via Wallsend no longer serves Central Station; both lines now cross at a new station at Monument.