New major train route to connect underrated UK city to popular beach town

A HUGE new train route is set to connect an underrated city in the UK to the south coast.

Arriva Group has revealed plans for a direct services from Newcastle to Brighton.

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It would be operated by Grand Central, an open-access train operating company.

The route would include stops at Birmingham, Sheffield and Oxford as well as Gatwick Airport.

It would avoid London, and reduce congestion on the busy train route.

If approved, five services would run a day by December 2026.

The full route would include the following stops:

• Newcastle
• Durham
• Darlington
• Northallerton
• York
• Doncaster
• Sheffield
• Derby
• Burton-on-Trent
• Birmingham New Street
• Warwick Parkway
• Banbury
• Oxford
• Reading
• Wokingham
• Guildford
• Redhill
• Gatwick Airport
• Haywards Heath
• Brighton

Arriva's Paul Hutchigns said: "We're very pleased to be submitting this application for the first direct service between Newcastle and Brighton, opening up new travel opportunities and making better use of available network capacity."

And a Gatwick Airport spokesperson praised the news as well which would connect Gatwick with "the Midlands and the North East".

The current route means passengers travelling from Newcastle have to change at London St Pancras, before changing to the Thameslink to Brighton.

This takes around 4h22, although the timings on the new route are yet to be confirmed.

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Newcastle remains an underrated city break destination, despite being home to some of the UK's best curry houses.

It is also getting a huge new £16million attraction inspired by Coney Island in the US.

In the mean time, a number of other new train routes hope to connect the UK.

Oxford is getting a number of new routes following it's £161million station revamp.

Four trains an hour will connect Cambridge to Oxford station via the new East-West Rail link - the first time in 50 years.

And last year a new direct train route between Oxford and Bristol launched, the first since 2003.

Currently being trialled with two return trains on a Saturday, this hopes to become a daily service by next year.

And here are seven cities in Europe which Brits could one day get to by train.

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