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 mi north of Newcastle, serves the coastal and rural villages of Alnmouth and Lesbury and the neighbouring market town of Alnwick in Northumberland, England. It is owned by Network Rail and managed by Northern Trains.

History
The station was opened on 1 July 1847 as Bilton by the Newcastle and Berwick Railway 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. On 2 May 1892 the station's name was changed to Alnmouth.

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 The Alnwick branch service was withdrawn in January 1968, with freight traffic ending in October the same year.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.

Facilities
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.

Services
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.

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

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.

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