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Breich - Public Consultation on Station Closure

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Stopper

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None of the Shotts line stations are particularly well used, especially the ones exclusively served by the hourly stopper. Give Breich an hourly service and after a few years I doubt it would see much less passenger numbers than Hartwood or Kingsknowe for example. Ideally the station would have been moved to Breich itself, but after all the money spent, at least an hourly service must be provided in my opinion. If you give a station a decent service, passengers will come, no matter where it is. I don’t think it would make too much of a difference to journey times/pathing on the stopper either.
 
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Altnabreac

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In what way do you think the (legally required) process which was followed was flawed? How could Network Rail* have improved it within the bounds of the law?

Here is a copy of the Guidance Note published by the government for those applying for a station closure under the Railways Act 2005, which might help you formulate your answer.


*ScotRail had almost no role in the closure process other than being consulted at the beginning

The flaws in the closure proposal were:
  • No trial service of hourly calls for 6-12 months preceding the closure (may have made no difference but allowed the closure opponents an easy argument)
  • No economic assessment of the benefits from moving the station closer to Breich (may well have been limited benefits but no assessment was made of it by NR)
  • Very vague assertion that rebuilding on the same site and moving the station would cost the same amount (presumably later found to be untrue as the rebuild cost was reduced from that in the closure proposal while I suspect the cost of moving to the village would have been much higher).
  • Saying no housebuilding was planned in the area when both the adopted Local Plan and emerging Local Development Plan had significant housing growth planned in Breich. Breich will still be a small village at the end of the process but not knowing this was planned made the economic assessment by Network Rail look flawed and incomplete.
Now Network Rail might have been able to do a much more competent closure proposal and the outcome could well have been the same for political reasons.

But if you found yourself being asked to write up a rebuttal to the closure notice it would have been much harder if those four points had been addressed.

Funnily enough Network Rail could even have read what the arguments might be had they done their homework and looked at the West Lothian Council response to the ill thought out station closure proposals by Transport Scotland in the Rail 2014 public consultation.

As it is, whoever wrote the West Lothian Council response to the NR closure proposal was just able to recycle the Rail 2014 arguments completely. It must have been a very easy job for whoever did it.
 

snowball

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Press release

https://www.networkrail.co.uk/feeds/station-redevelopment-is-step-up-for-breich/

Breich station has re-opened to passenger service following a 12 week closure to enable a £2.4m redevelopment.


The West Lothian station is benefiting from a £2.4m investment to ensure that the platform lengths and heights are compliant with the electrified railway environment and suitable for the new electric trains that will be introduced on the route.

As well as the full reconstruction of both platforms, the redevelopment has delivered a new ramped footpath to the Edinburgh bound platform on the north side of the station, re-profiling of the access ramps and the embankment on the south side to make it easier for customers to get in and out of the station.

There are also improvements to the lighting, CCTV, customer information systems, ticket machines and validators and waiting shelters at the West Lothian station during the line closure – with the work set to complete fully next month.

The station redevelopment is part of a £160m Scottish government funded investment to upgrade and electrify the line to improve reliability and enable the introduction of electric trains on the route by March 2019.

The work is a key part of the Scottish Government funded investment to upgrade and electrify the line to improve reliability and enable the introduction of electric trains on the route by March 2019.

Brian Mallon, Network Rail programme manager for the Shotts Line electrification project said: “We know that closing stations is never a popular choice for passengers but in this case , it was the most efficient way to deliver the work while trains continued to operate on the line and carry passengers to and from nearby stations.

“Redeveloping Breich station is part of a wider programme of station upgrades on the route being delivered during the electrification project to enable the new faster longer electric trains

“It is important that we have stations that are safe and compliant in the newly electrified railway environment but also that provide a better overall experience for passengers using the railway.

“We appreciate the cooperation of station users and the local community and thank them for their patience as we deliver this investment to upgrade the station.”

The full redevelopment of Breich station will be complete by October 2018.
 

jawr256

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A creative use of the phrase "re-opened to passenger service" there by Network Rail given that ScotRail's JourneyCheck says no trains are stopping there this week.

https://www.journeycheck.com/scotrail/ said:
Engineering Work: At Breich
Planned engineering work will take place at Breich from 17:00, Thursday 13 September 2018 to 23:59, Sunday 23 September 2018.
Additional Information:
Station improvement work is taking place at Breich station therefore trains will not call at Breich station. Passengers should use helpoint for onward travel information/assistance
 

Kite159

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Having visited the rebuilt station on Saturday, I was impressed with the quality of the work. Although the customer information screens were not active ("Use help point for timetable information") with the wrong time showing. Certainly had good lights

Just lacks bins, timetable information posters, a decent seat within the waiting shelter and trains calling :lol:

Breich Station

Breich Station
 

railjock

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Having visited the rebuilt station on Saturday, I was impressed with the quality of the work. Although the customer information screens were not active ("Use help point for timetable information") with the wrong time showing. Certainly had good lights

Just lacks bins, timetable information posters, a decent seat within the waiting shelter and trains calling :lol:

Breich Station

Breich Station
Perhaps lacking passengers as well...
 

Journeyman

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First you need more trains to stop, then you might get more passengers

No, the meagre train service came about because usage had declined so much, not the other way around. Even with an hourly service this station will hardly ever get used. I'm of the opinion that the rebuild was one of the biggest wastes of taxpayers' money I've ever seen.
 

takno

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No, the meagre train service came about because usage had declined so much, not the other way around. Even with an hourly service this station will hardly ever get used. I'm of the opinion that the rebuild was one of the biggest wastes of taxpayers' money I've ever seen.
Don't say that. Somebody will demand a public enquiry. Given how much they cost and how few lessons are ever learned I would say Scotland's public enquiry industry is unquestionably the biggest waste of taxpayer money I've ever seen.
 

Kite159

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No, the meagre train service came about because usage had declined so much, not the other way around. Even with an hourly service this station will hardly ever get used. I'm of the opinion that the rebuild was one of the biggest wastes of taxpayers' money I've ever seen.

Agreed about the station rebuild being one of the biggest wastes of money in recent years, but sadly Network Rail came across the usual issues when they wanted to close it to limit the cost of rebuilding.

Most of the houses in Breich had cars parked outside, if the station got an hourly service then maybe it might gain a couple commuters depending where those commuters worked [for example if they worked in Glasgow city centre]
 

Journeyman

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Agreed about the station rebuild being one of the biggest wastes of money in recent years, but sadly Network Rail came across the usual issues when they wanted to close it to limit the cost of rebuilding.

Most of the houses in Breich had cars parked outside, if the station got an hourly service then maybe it might gain a couple commuters depending where those commuters worked [for example if they worked in Glasgow city centre]

I hope this doesn't sound too uncharitable, but having been to Breich, I don't think many people who live there are economically active. The few that are probably work in Livingston, and access to the town centre by train is almost impossible. The bus is far better for that.
 

Essexman

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Does anyone know when Breich is going to get its improved service?
Currently the timetable still shows just one train in each direction.
I'm planning to go back there in the next few months and if there will be more trains calling in the May timetable I'll leave it until then.
 

delt1c

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Could have potential as a park and Ride station . If space is available for a car park
 

Stopper

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Figures are released every December for the previous April-April period. As the timetable was introduced in May of this year, you're not going to see the statistics for the relevant period until December 2020.

I’m aware of that but was more wondering if anyone has seen/heard. A lot of people at Breich may not pay anyway.
 

Altnabreac

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I’m aware of that but was more wondering if anyone has seen/heard. A lot of people at Breich may not pay anyway.

If Breich is getting any business (and it probably isn’t getting much), then it is probably Edinburgh bound commuters from Longridge or the Blaeberryhill end of Whitburn.

They probably bought tickets from Fauldhouse previously and the cost difference is relatively small so they may not have switched ticket immediately (or at all).

So I would want to see some travel survey data specifically targeting potential users rather than just ORR ticket based data.
 

Journeyman

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If Breich is getting any business (and it probably isn’t getting much), then it is probably Edinburgh bound commuters from Longridge or the Blaeberryhill end of Whitburn.

They probably bought tickets from Fauldhouse previously and the cost difference is relatively small so they may not have switched ticket immediately (or at all).

So I would want to see some travel survey data specifically targeting potential users rather than just ORR ticket based data.

Yeah, I suspect anyone using Breich from now on will just be changing from somewhere else on the Shotts line, and I very much doubt the business is growing.

Breich is a very small and quite deprived village, hardly prime commuting territory. I suspect most people in work there are probably employed locally, and the train is pretty useless if you work in central Livingston.

Rebuilding the station strikes me as a huge waste of money, and the closure case was a good one.
 

edwin_m

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Wondering about P&R potential with the station being where an A road crosses the route. But looking northwards the major non-rail-served settlement of Whitburn looks to have better access to Armadale on the Bathgate line. Southwards there is only Forth and a few even smaller places.
 

route101

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Wondering about P&R potential with the station being where an A road crosses the route. But looking northwards the major non-rail-served settlement of Whitburn looks to have better access to Armadale on the Bathgate line. Southwards there is only Forth and a few even smaller places.

I recently took the bus from Lanark to Livingston . Someone got on at Forth and took the bus to West Calder for train connection . The bus went past Breich and Addiewell but half hourly freq is at West Calder
 

route101

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Was on a Glasgow bound stopper on Saturday , no one got on or off at Breich or Addiewell.
 

Stopper

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To be honest there’s a lot of Shotts line stations where nobody gets off or on during the day, the small Edinburgh stations, Addiewell and Hartwood in particular.

It’s not exactly the most attractive line go build up passenger usage and the fact the station wasn’t rebuilt closer to Breich isn’t going to help either.
 
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