I don't think reopening in a good idea, the area has a very low population density and it would mean probably having less than an hourly service also the region is very car dependant so I can't see a train service making much of an impact.
The region is car-dependent BECAUSE there is no train service !
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Stations would probably be at Stranraer (Pop 10851), Newton Stewart (pop 4092), (Pop Gatehouse of Fleet (Population unknown) and Castle Douglas (Pop 4174). Dumfries of course has a population just shy of 50,000.
The reality is the Dumfries is the major employment centre in the region and that demand would be overwhelmingly towards Dumfries from Galloway, rather than people from Dumfries going West. So your assertion of 55,000+ isn't really a fair assessment of the situation - most of the population is in Dumfries and has little reason to travel West.
To look at Altnabreac's Famous Rules
1) Only one settlement on the new route has population over 10,000 - Stranraer, which already struggles to maintain its service to Ayr and Glasgow. Dumfries does have almost 50,000 people but it is already linked by rail to Carlisle and Glasgow, which is where the demand from this station lies.
2) Journey time from end to end will be >60 minutes
3) I think it is mostly unperturbed track bed, although I think a few of the upgrades have used the old line.
4) You could extend a few Carlisle-Dumfries terminators, and capacity isn't a real issue on this rural line.
Frankly, it fails the most important rules for this type of line (1 and 2) and this paints a bleak picture. As nice as it would be to link the region with a line in this way, it simply isn't viable, nor is it a worthwhile use of public money.
As I've said, Stranraer really struggles to sustain a service to Glasgow. If it can't manage that, the prospects for a line to Dumfries and even on to Carlisle are dire.
People would mainly be travelling east TO Dumfries for employment, links to other train services, ie Carlisle, Newcastle, London etc etc.
You've missed Dalbeattie, population 4,500. This line would link the 1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th biggest towns in the region, and all of those bar Stranraer would be less than an hour from Dumfries, in the case of Dalbeattie and Castle Douglas , less than an hour from Carlisle.
Combining freight potential,(Irish bound containers, local timber etc etc) through passenger traffic as well as local, and tourist train potential makes the line viable.
Dumfries and Galloway was voted top tourist destination in Scotland, the A75 corridor is the main export route between the north of Ireland , southern Scptland and Northern England. There is a lot going for this scheme.
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Correct me if i am wrong - but there was a huge imbalance of trade on the Irish routes - mostly inwards to Eire and NI , mostly empty equipment and containers back......(OK - a good while ago when I was involved)
Such an imbalance is not going to help the "economics" IMHO....
I don't see that that makes any difference. There's a huge trade imbalance between the' UK' and China, it irrelevant.
'Britain is full of empty container trains in one direction.eg Inverness to Grangemouth Tesco service , as one example of many.
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Stations would probably be at Stranraer (Pop 10851), Newton Stewart (pop 4092), (Pop Gatehouse of Fleet (Population unknown) and Castle Douglas (Pop 4174). Dumfries of course has a population just shy of 50,000.
The reality is the Dumfries is the major employment centre in the region and that demand would be overwhelmingly towards Dumfries from Galloway, rather than people from Dumfries going West. So your assertion of 55,000+ isn't really a fair assessment of the situation - most of the population is in Dumfries and has little reason to travel West.
To look at Altnabreac's Famous Rules
1) Only one settlement on the new route has population over 10,000 - Stranraer, which already struggles to maintain its service to Ayr and Glasgow. Dumfries does have almost 50,000 people but it is already linked by rail to Carlisle and Glasgow, which is where the demand from this station lies.
2) Journey time from end to end will be >60 minutes
3) I think it is mostly unperturbed track bed, although I think a few of the upgrades have used the old line.
4) You could extend a few Carlisle-Dumfries terminators, and capacity isn't a real issue on this rural line.
Frankly, it fails the most important rules for this type of line (1 and 2) and this paints a bleak picture. As nice as it would be to link the region with a line in this way, it simply isn't viable, nor is it a worthwhile use of public money.
As I've said, Stranraer really struggles to sustain a service to Glasgow. If it can't manage that, the prospects for a line to Dumfries and even on to Carlisle are dire.
As far as terminal capacity goes, Dumfries has a piecemeal odd-interval service to Carlisle at present (14 trains a day) so this also has the potential to increase the viability of an increase in service to Carlisle from Dumfries because the catchment area for the service would potentially have more than doubled.
