New rail lines in Scotland

[och aye]

The Herald have recently done a series of articles about Scotland's Railways and published an article by rail engineer and YouTuber Gareth Dennis with his view on where new rail lines in Scotland could/should be in the future.

Reimagining Scotland’s railways from the Highlands to the Scottish Borders

Rail expert Gareth Dennis reimagines the future of Scottish railways. Here is how it could look from the Highlands to the Scottish Borders.

www.heraldscotland.com

Scotland’s railway network – all 2730 kilometres of it – is one of dramatic contrasts. Glasgow’s railway is the densest urban system outside of London, while the West Highland Line is easily the most spectacular railway in the UK and is one of the most scenic in western Europe.

In the here and now it has its challenges, but what potential does this system hold? If we look to the second half of this century, how might Scotland’s railway look different to today, and what opportunity for the country might this unleash?

He also did a video going into more detail on these proposals:

Certainly they are ambitious proposals, however I'd be surprised to see any of them built (certainly in the next 25 years) with perhaps the exceptions of possibly a line out to Fraserburgh and an extension of the Borders Railway to Hawick.

 

[BlueLeanie]

Some of these are quite unrealistic.

It would be better to dual the A75 from Gretna to Stranraer.

Why Ullapool when there are towns like Tillicoultry, Clackmannan, Kinross, Crieff where the same £ spent would benefit vastly more people?

St Andrews and Fraserburgh I get.

Inverness to Fort William would be a sustainable key tourist route if electrified.

If you're going to build an HS line to Edinburgh and build a line to Carlisle through the borders. Maybe just build an HS line through the borders instead? With just two HS trains an hour, there'd be plenty of scope to run a "local" 125mph EMU behind each service.

 

[gingerheid]

Oh gosh! Poor Grangemouth! If it has to first wait for a railway across the Great Glen and up to Ullapool then it's never seing train again!

 

[Falcon1200]

The Garve/Ullapool and Fort William/Inverness lines were not built even when the railways were at the height of their power and there were no serious alternative means of transport, so how could they possibly be justified now?

 

[Tayway]

What Scotland really needs is a high quality interurban bus network, including integrated ticketing and timetables with the railway. Probably somewhere between the rural Citylink and the TrawsCymru system, with Ember's ease of booking and cycle spaces.

The only routes on the map that are vaguely viable are Tweedbank to Hawick (not to Carlisle), Leuchars to St Andrews, and maybe Dyce to Peterhead/Fraserburgh at a stretch.

 

[30907]

The only routes on the map that are vaguely viable are Tweedbank to Hawick (not to Carlisle),

Even Hawick is stretching it - the previous significant township is Newtown St Boswells which is about 15 miles away. Hawick (and Selkirk) currently have a half-hourly bus to Galashiels which a train would barely compete with.

maybe Dyce to Peterhead/Fraserburgh at a stretch.

If the map is a guide, that would involvep a fair bit of new build.

 

[A S Leib]

How much scope is there for new urban railways around Edinburgh or Glasgow which wouldn't be better-served as tram or subway routes (e.g. maybe orbital routes south / west of Glasgow)?

 

[Tayway]

How much scope is there for new urban railways around Edinburgh or Glasgow which wouldn't be better-served as tram or subway routes (e.g. maybe orbital routes south / west of Glasgow)?

Re-extending the Paisley Canal line to Bridge of Weir or even Kilmacolm? There's a few others mooted in Glasgow as part of the Clyde Metro scheme such as the Botanic Gardens tunnel and some sort of Airport connection. Larkhall to Strathaven would be nice, but relatively infeasible from an infrastructure point of view.

In Edinburgh there's the perennial South Suburban conundrum, but not much else. I have a vague idea in my head for a spur from near Midcalder Junction to serve central Livingston but I don't know how feasible that is – could be a western terminus along with Bathgate for a sort of Lothian S-bahn to North Berwick/Gorebridge in the east.

Branches to Haddington and Penicuik are discussed sometimes but they're probably just not big enough to warrant extensions (and aren't on the way to anywhere else).

 

[I'm here now]

Oh gosh! Poor Grangemouth! If it has to first wait for a railway across the Great Glen and up to Ullapool then it's never seing train again!

I think he’s going to talk about the urban links in another piece.

 

[yoyothehobo]

Those ideas on that proposal arent even worth the energy it takes to transmit the image.

 

[Meerkat]

Why Ullapool

Presumably because of the ferries

Inverness to Fort William would be a sustainable key tourist route if electrified.

How long would it take to negate the considerable carbon expended building a line through that terrain?!
And it Would never survive an environmental appraisal against electric buses.

 

[waverley47]

I think he’s going to talk about the urban links in another piece.

Oh joy of joys.

Those ideas on that proposal arent even worth the energy it takes to transmit the image.

And the time it would take to properly analyse any one of these proposals wouldn't be worth it.

 

[HighlandStorm]

Presumably because of the ferries

How long would it take to negate the considerable carbon expended building a line through that terrain?!
And it Would never survive an environmental appraisal against electric buses.

Long term lurker here. Live very close to the relatively new distillery/brewery in Inverness that produces a very session-able pale ale that goes by my screen name! No connection to the place btw.

I’m only going to comment on the Inverness to Fort William suggestion. I’ve done this by citylink numerous times and fair to say it’s not the most comfortable coach journey given the A82 is a century old alignment for the most part and has a carriageway width that has improved little over that century.

It is however perhaps the most glaring gap in the rural rail network in Scotland, this lack of East West through connectivity.

My understanding is the rail line up the Great Glen was never completed because of competing rail companies playing games. The West Highland extension took traffic from the Kyle Line and the Highland / later North British were determined to prevent a connection via the Great Glen and a stake in the canal was used to thwart the line going beyond Fort Augustus.

Nice as it would be, surely the way to effect such a link would be the A86 corridor linking somewhere around Tulloch to Newtonmore or Dalwhinne.

Citylink simply can’t provide reliable journey times on this corridor, due to weather issues in winter and significant traffic issues in summer. The Scottish Government aims to reduce private car km by a fifth by 2030 and further beyond. Rebuilding the A82 do improve the coach service is not going to achieve that.

A 20% shift from road to rail would double the ScotRail passenger journeys from current levels - the existent railway in Scotland can not support that as is. If substantial modal shift is the goal, a paradigm shift is required on how we value investment in non road transport.

 

[al78]

The Garve/Ullapool and Fort William/Inverness lines were not built even when the railways were at the height of their power and there were no serious alternative means of transport, so how could they possibly be justified now?

I have always thought it a bit strange that a railway was never constructed between Inverness and Fort William. They are two of the largest urban areas in the highlands and are both very popular with tourists, and there is a conveniently oriented fault line providing a direct low level valley route with little in the way of significant gradients.

 

[Uncle Buck]

A new line between Glasgow and Edinburgh, stopping at Edinburgh airport, could free up vast space on the overcrowded line that currently connects the two cities and open up myriad different routes.

It would have all the benefits of HS2, but because it is far shorter and runs through, bluntly, not the most attractive part of Scotland, it would be much cheaper.

These ideas are just nonsense. There are some journeys for which bus is more suitable.

 

[HSTEd]

I have always thought it a bit strange that a railway was never constructed between Inverness and Fort William. They are two of the largest urban areas in the highlands and are both very popular with tourists, and there is a conveniently oriented fault line providing a direct low level valley route with little in the way of significant gradients.

Well is there really much traffic?

Neither settlement was ever particularly large and central to trade

 

[waverley47]

I think it basically comes down to rivalry between the Highland, Caledonian and North British (sponsor of the West Highland) railways.

If there had ever been a merger between the Highland and North British railways, then perhaps we would have. No matter though, if those proposals had happened, at least one of the lines up there would have closed in the 60s, and we wouldn't seriously consider reopening it.

 

[Severnia333]

It's always surprised me St Andrew's doesn't have a station. A wealthy, medium sized university and tourist town, I imagine there'd be lots of demand from the get go.

The Aberdeen to Fraserburgh (probably initially Peterhead) also seems sensible, and might be complemented by a suburban station or two in Aberdeen city.

 

[A S Leib]

It's always surprised me St Andrew's doesn't have a station. A wealthy, medium sized university and tourist town, I imagine there'd be lots of demand from the get go.

I think the train would provide more capacity, but it would be competing with eight buses an hour. Given that the bus is scheduled to take eleven minutes for St. Andrews to Leuchars and just under half an hour to Dundee, I wonder if there'd be concerns about a rail service to Edinburgh being introduced and used as a pretext to reduce Dundee services.

On the other hand, I don't think the train would be massively quicker than the bus, especially as it probably wouldn't be competing with frequency, and ideally would have services to Dundee if built as well.

 

[JamesT]

It's always surprised me St Andrew's doesn't have a station. A wealthy, medium sized university and tourist town, I imagine there'd be lots of demand from the get go.

St Andrews isn’t that big of a town. Less than 20,000 population.
Of course, it did have a station 60 years ago. But the link to the mainline was closed in 1969. It’s not clear that anything has really changed in terms of demand that would justify a new line.

 

[lachlan]

If we're proposing big new lines I'm surprised a new Edinburgh-Perth line via Kinross isn't proposed. The rail route is very indirect and slower than the bus, and it would improve intercity connections for Dunfermline.

Additionally if we're creating new lines along the lines of the OP, a new fast line via Forfar and Brechin could speed up intercity journeys and put the two towns on the railway map.

 

[Grimsby town]

St Andrews isn’t that big of a town. Less than 20,000 population.
Of course, it did have a station 60 years ago. But the link to the mainline was closed in 1969. It’s not clear that anything has really changed in terms of demand that would justify a new line.

The population has doubled since the station was closed and the number of rail journeys per capita is higher now than it was in 1969 so there's clearly been changes that would make a railway station more viable. Its certainly one of the two more viable reopening options on this list.

Investment in existing rail links between and within cities would be a far better use of money than building an Invernes to Fort William line. Having done some analysis on journeys in Scotland, there still a significant number of car journeys between rail served cities.

 

[mike57]

Looking at the proposals it looks like 90% pie in the sky to me.

St Andrews may be viable, and I suspect Aberdeen to Fraserburgh may also be viable, I know most of trackbed still exists.

Inverness - Fort William. If it had been built, then an important rail link today probably, but building 53 miles of new railway down a geographically constrained route, not going to happen.

High Speed rail, the HS2 debacle has killed off any hope of further high speed rail in the UK for a generation.

As others have said Tweedbank to Hawick, maybe, further south there is an awful lot of empty space, and unless the whole route is electrified it doesn't really work as an alternative Carlise - Edinburgh route.

Re-instating the direct route from Carlise to Stranraer seems pointless, how many foot passengers from the south cross to NI now by this route, the money would better spent improving the A75, after all congestion and a difficult route create increased emmisions, and the last time I was in that area most of the traffic seemed to be freight headed for the port, which is not going to easily transfer to rail.

Given the HS2 situation I would have looked at some deviations/re-routeing between Dunbar and Berwick to eliminate the slower sections. As well as providing quicker journeys if the old route was retained it would provide some 4 track sections which would help capacity. I know the ECML is still a 125mph railway, but Edinburgh London journey times by rail are competetive with flying now, with door to door times from centre to centre being similar, so even small savings on the rail journey time will give rail the edge. I suppose the big issue would be capacity at the southern end but thats another problem.

 

[Yorkshireguy]

It's always surprised me St Andrew's doesn't have a station. A wealthy, medium sized university and tourist town, I imagine there'd be lots of demand from the get go.

The Aberdeen to Fraserburgh (probably initially Peterhead) also seems sensible, and might be complemented by a suburban station or two in Aberdeen city.

Think with St Andrews you’ve also got to show that you couldn’t create a similar perception for much cheaper by rebuilding the station building at Leuchars, giving the station a silly name like “St Andrews Parkway” and paying for some “trackless trams”.

 

[Meerkat]

Think with St Andrews you’ve also got to show that you couldn’t create a similar perception for much cheaper by rebuilding the station building at Leuchars, giving the station a silly name like “St Andrews Parkway” and paying for some “trackless trams”.

I don’t get St Andrews being treated as near obvious. from a map the original trackbed looks heavily obstructed with many roads and accesses to deal with, would presumably end in a station right on the edge of the town, and has no obvious service to extend.
So I don’t see how it would be better than a bus that actually goes around the town and would likely be more frequent.

 

[lachlan]

I don’t get St Andrews being treated as near obvious. from a map the original trackbed looks heavily obstructed with many roads and accesses to deal with, would presumably end in a station right on the edge of the town, and has no obvious service to extend.
So I don’t see how it would be better than a bus that actually goes around the town and would likely be more frequent.

The bus currently terminates in the centre - not much closer than the train would get. Though in this case I'd think extending the bus service to better connect the south of town would deliver more benefits than the railway.

There's also scope to increase the frequency of the bus service.

 

[Southsider]

A new line between Glasgow and Edinburgh, stopping at Edinburgh airport, could free up vast space on the overcrowded line that currently connects the two cities and open up myriad different routes.

It would have all the benefits of HS2, but because it is far shorter and runs through, bluntly, not the most attractive part of Scotland, it would be much cheaper.

These ideas are just nonsense. There are some journeys for which bus is more suitable.

Another Edinburgh to Glasgow line? It’s already got four. I know none stop at the airport but that’s a different matter.

 

[aaronspence]

The bus currently terminates in the centre - not much closer than the train would get. Though in this case I'd think extending the bus service to better connect the south of town would deliver more benefits than the railway.

There's also scope to increase the frequency of the bus service.

St Andrews is tiny, you can walk from one end to the other in 15 minutes.

The whole rail link just would never make money, if they followed the original route, you couldn't do Edinburgh to St Andrews unless you switch at Leuchars, in which case unless Scotrail have a frequent service, the bus will always be far more viable considering they are every 7 minutes.

Bigger issue also is the old route now has a golf hotel in the way.. so you'd need to somehow cross the A91.. so. thats a bridge over the Eden, a bridge over the road, , Then you have trees all in the way at the St Andrews side... Where do you then put the station, it can't go into town, the Uni buildings are all in the way.

 

[A S Leib]

The whole rail link just would never make money

That shouldn't be a reason against opening new lines by itself, and definitely not against keeping existing lines open, but it does at least mean routes with few(er) good alternatives like Peterhead / Fraserburgh should come first.

 

[Kingston Dan]

Re-instating the direct route from Carlise to Stranraer seems pointless, how many foot passengers from the south cross to NI now by this route, the money would better spent improving the A75, after all congestion and a difficult route create increased emmisions, and the last time I was in that area most of the traffic seemed to be freight headed for the port, which is not going to easily transfer to rail.

My understanding is that it isn't a reinstatement it is (mainly) a new route to deal with freight to Cairnryan. It would be instead of spending billions on dualling the A75.

If we are to decarbonise transport then we do have to get long distance freight onto rail (and electrify it). And if we keep investing in roads then freight operators are going to use them - just as passenger transport does.