Why did Haddington close and North Berwick survive?

[och aye]

As matter of curiosity does anyone know why the Haddington branch closed but North Berwick managed to survive the Beeching axe?

I ask this as Haddington had (and still has) a much larger population than N. Berwick and on top of that, Gullane (with a similar population to N. Berwick) lost their branch line.

It does seem out of the the tree branch lines, the Haddington line seemed like the more appropriate line to retain or am I missing something

 

[Scotrail84]

As matter of curiosity does anyone know why the Haddington branch closed but North Berwick managed to survive the Beeching axe?

I ask this as Haddington had (and still has) a much larger population than N. Berwick and on top of that, Gullane (with a similar population to N. Berwick) lost their branch line.

It does seem out of the the tree branch lines, the Haddington line seemed like the more appropriate line to retain or am I missing something

Maybe something to with NB being a coastal town that is extremely busy in the summer with visitors and golfers and not to mention that part of East Lothian has always been home to some politicians, QC's and other high ranking VIP's.

 

[route:oxford]

It does seem out of the the tree branch lines, the Haddington line seemed like the more appropriate line to retain or am I missing something

That depends, on the data we don't know - but perhaps could guess.

Services ran direct from North Berwick to Edinburgh. Services from Haddington operated as a shuttle with a change of train to reach Edinburgh.

Haddington was very much an agricultural focussed town, whereas North Berwick was popular with commuters.

So, in this case, it looks like that whilst Haddington was technically the bigger town, North Berwick probably had higher volumes of rail users.

 

[AngusH]

I think perhaps it was simply less popular as a route. It's much closer to the A1 for example and the road connections are better. I believe that it also closed much earlier (to passengers in 1949 and freight in 1968) which is probably a sign of something being wrong with the situation.

The service was also pretty poor if my reading on it is to be believed. (One suggestion being that during the later 1930s there there was only one direct passenger train a week to Edinburgh, all others require a change)

Easier to take a direct bus instead.


North Berwick was under threat at various times as well, but perhaps the arguments against it were less solid and the arguments for it made more strongly by locals including the MP (John Mackintosh)

 

[Scotrail84]

That depends, on the data we don't know - but perhaps could guess.

Services ran direct from North Berwick to Edinburgh. Services from Haddington operated as a shuttle with a change of train to reach Edinburgh.

Haddington was very much an agricultural focussed town, whereas North Berwick was popular with commuters.

So, in this case, it looks like that whilst Haddington was technically the bigger town, North Berwick probably had higher volumes of rail users.

Did they run from Corstorphine station (long closed) to North Berwick via Edinburgh?

 

[gingerheid]

http://timetableworld.com/book_viewer.php?id=4&section_id=1132

Tables 35 and 36 show the 1947 service level; with North Berwick definitely winning at that point!

 

[Calthrop]

...and on top of that, Gullane (with a similar population to N. Berwick) lost their branch line.

A somewhat frivolous response on a serious topic: but the marvellously (and -- per not-highly-detailed maps -- not obviously necessary) sinuous course of the Gullane branch, as shown on maps, has always inspired in me the, in my case unrealisable, wish to have travelled on it. It was in fact, in all senses the first casualty of the three branches discussed here: passenger services withdrawn 1932, freight 1964.

 

[backontrack]

Maybe something to with NB being a coastal town that is extremely busy in the summer with visitors and golfers and not to mention that part of East Lothian has always been home to some politicians, QC's and other high ranking VIP's.

But Haddington was (and still is) the county town.

 

[Taunton]

When studying in Edinburgh in the 1970s we did a Rural Transport field study in exactly this area of East Lothian.

Not only had Haddington long lost its rail service, but the "town" even in those times was no more than a large village, notwithstanding being the "County Town". Much of the housing has come since the railway closed (there was quite a bit of typically-Scottish 1950s council housing), although it's still a pretty small place. Most notable in the 1970s was how it related much more to the surrounding farms, particularly southward to Gifford and into the hills, rather than to greater Edinburgh. The A1 road used to go through the central market place, it was bypassed in the 1930s, which has since been bypassed again with a modern road.

County Towns in the pre-1973 Scottish local authority structure could be quite small. I think it was Selkirk that had just one High School in the county, and the Director of Education had his office in it, next door to the headmaster; they shared a secretary.

North Berwick was different. The rail service even then (Met-Cam dmus), when the timetable was thinner than nowadays, was quite well supported, I think North Berwick itself was the busiest point of the stations on the service. Traffic was two-way, visitors from Edinburgh, principally in summer, balanced the commuter and general traffic. It also had a frequent direct bus service from Edinburgh, where Haddington had much less, just a stopping point on the tedious A1 local bus service down to Berwick.

 

[backontrack]

Tranent has expanded vastly in the last few years, of course - so any reopened Haddington branch would probably go through that line too.

 

[snakeeyes]

Why didnt the Gullane brach continue to North Berwick, surely this would of made more sense?

 

[Scotrail84]

Why didnt the Gullane brach continue to North Berwick, surely this would of made more sense?

Was there not several golf courses in the way?

 

[Richardl1th]

I live locally. Passenger service on the Haddington line closed in 1949, well before Beeching.

Andrew Hajducki's book on the Haddington line outlined why the line closed.

Services to Edinburgh were slow and infrequent, and required a change at Longniddry. The timetable referred to in a previous post shows that there was only one morning commuter departure per day.

When the East Coast line was built in the 1840s, it by-passed Haddington for a number of reasons. A direct line from Edinburgh would need to go up a steep incline, especially between Musselburgh and Tranent. It stayed on the level by skirting Haddington to the north. There is also a story that the local landowners were successful in keeping railway away from the town.

As mentioned, Haddington in the late 40s was much smaller than now it took a small post-war influx of Glasgow overspill to revitalise a town that until then was an agricultural town focused on the needs of grain and potato farmers. Those needs were a few slow freight trains a week to take gain to Edinburgh.

in the 40s the SMT bus was much faster, more frequent, and stopped in the High Street. The station was on the edge of town. With little traffic on the A1 or in Edinburgh the bus was much faster than the slow branch train. This is a pattern that closed many branchlines across Britain.

Haddington is now a commuter town dependent on cars, even if some of those drivers go to the Park&Rides at Drem, Longniddry, Wallyford or Newcraighall. There is a growing market for bus commuters, and Lothian Buses has recently improved the route to Edinburgh after taking over from First.

Finally, the line from Longniddry is now a well-established bike route, and the station area is light industry. The platform and lamphouse is still there, and the station forecourt has just been decorated with railway-history style railings. The Railway Hotel has just changed management and is now the Loft.

There are two famous pictures of the station. One is when an engine overshot the buffers, hanging in mid air just like the famous Paris picture. The other is Polish tanks being loaded on wagons ahead of D-Day.

 

[Dr Hoo]

When I worked on Scotrail there was a popular story that the manager in charge of closures lived at North Berwick and always 'kept putting the file at the bottom of the heap' every time it surfaced.

I have no idea whether this was an urban myth or not.

 

[Millisle]

When studying in Edinburgh in the 1970s we did a Rural Transport field study in exactly this area of East Lothian.

Not only had Haddington long lost its rail service, but the "town" even in those times was no more than a large village, notwithstanding being the "County Town". Much of the housing has come since the railway closed (there was quite a bit of typically-Scottish 1950s council housing), although it's still a pretty small place. Most notable in the 1970s was how it related much more to the surrounding farms, particularly southward to Gifford and into the hills, rather than to greater Edinburgh. The A1 road used to go through the central market place, it was bypassed in the 1930s, which has since been bypassed again with a modern road.

County Towns in the pre-1973 Scottish local authority structure could be quite small. I think it was Selkirk that had just one High School in the county, and the Director of Education had his office in it, next door to the headmaster; they shared a secretary.

North Berwick was different. The rail service even then (Met-Cam dmus), when the timetable was thinner than nowadays, was quite well supported, I think North Berwick itself was the busiest point of the stations on the service. Traffic was two-way, visitors from Edinburgh, principally in summer, balanced the commuter and general traffic. It also had a frequent direct bus service from Edinburgh, where Haddington had much less, just a stopping point on the tedious A1 local bus service down to Berwick.

More likely to have been Peebles rather than Selkirk, as Gala is in Selkirkshire.

 

[ian1944]

I agree that until relatively recently Haddington was a place of marginal importance, despite the grandiloquence of East Lothian being known formerly as Haddingtonshire - as said above, being a county town is no guarantee of wider significance, other examples being Berwickshire's Duns and its predecessor Greenlaw. It's believed locally that what saved NB was the number of Scottish Office staff who lived there at the time.

As an aside, Haddington is experiencing loads of new houses being built on the west, i.e. Edinburgh side, most of which will generate commuting to/from the city. Though some of this will be by the four per hour "express" (not very) buses, the proximity of the houses to the western A1 junction makes it a fair bet that most will be by car. A station on the western outskirts with a good direct service would undoubtedly be well-used, and may actually have a better business case than some of the Scottish candidates talked about here.

 

[Glenmutchkin]

Why didnt the Gullane brach continue to North Berwick, surely this would of made more sense?

The original 1893 Act of Parliament was for the Aberlady, Gullane and North Berwick Railway Company but only the section to Gullane was built.

Source : The North Berwick and Gullane Branch Lines by Andrew M Hajducki, published by The Oakwood Press.

As an aside the Haddington Branch was one of the possibilities explored by the SRPS before the decision was taken to move to Bo'ness.

 

[och aye]

Thanks very much for the replies folks.

I never realised Haddington was quite a small place at the time of the beeching cuts, compared to the size it is today.

I wonder if there was a plan to reintroduce railway services to Haddington, if a route via Macmerry, Tranent and then onto Prestonpans and Wallyford would be viable?

 

[Steamysandy]

I knew a chap who could remember the Haddington Passenger service and he said it had very few passengers but plenty of Parcels traffic - the guard sometimes travelled as a passenger as the guards van was full!
Haddington and North Berwick stations were both badly sited but the latter was closer to the town centre.The 1948 downpour damaged Haddington station and it was partly as a result of this that the passenger service was withdrawn
Andrew Hajduki s book on the North Berwick line to my mind has a number of gaps in it and although my name is listed in the back of it.it was only after it was published that contact was made whereas I could have given him access to retired staff.
As an aside the booking clerk when Dirleton closed was married to my oldest cousin while her youngest sister was initially married to a son of the last Stationmaster at North Berwick!
In the book a ticket for parking a car at Longniddry is reproduced - it was my first Ford Anglia and that ticket is probably the best way to remember it!

 

[Steamysandy]

Thanks very much for the replies folks.

I never realised Haddington was quite a small place at the time of the beeching cuts, compared to the size it is today.

I wonder if there was a plan to reintroduce railway services to Haddington, if a route via Macmerry, Tranent and then onto Prestonpans and Wallyford would be viable?

I honestly cant see the route you're suggesting would ever be built.The most recent ideas have been based on the original branch being returned to a railway.
Bear in mind Tranent was served by a branch from Preston pans (freight only - Preston pans was originally called Tranent!)
Macmerry closed to passengers in 1925.Trains ran via Smeaton,Pencaitland and Ormiston,all of which closed to Passengers in 1933.
In addition the gradients between Tranent and Preston pans / Wallyford would be very steep not to mention the closeness of the East Coast Mainline only a mile or two to the North

 

[Steamysandy]

I'm going to add a final point.When North Berwick was proposed for closure in1969,the Dunbar services had been withdrawn in 1964.The replacement Express Bus running direct to East Linton was very unreliable and traffic congestion in Musselburgh was solid - there was no bypass and the alternative route was via the A68 and Dalkeith!!
From personal experience it could take 30 minutes to travel through Musselburgh.Closure of the North Berwick service would have only exacerbated the situation especially at the rush hour.
It was principally for these reasons the North Berwick line was reprieved albeit with a very basic and totally uneconomic service (each loaded train had a balancing empty one!).Over time this was built on till we reached where we are today but I remember at a private meeting in North Berwick in 2000 being given a few looks when I suggested a guest for an event on the basis that if he hadn't facilitated increasing services,the branch and the points at Drem would have been long gone and there would have been no 150 years celebration!