GET the Borders Railway on track for extension to Hawick and beyond.
That’s the message to Scottish ministers at their Tuesday meeting in the region.
The Campaign for Borders Rail has put the case for continuing the current Edinburgh to Tweedbank project, on to Hawick and ultimately reconnecting the entire mainline between the capital, Midlothian, the Borders and Carlisle.
On the occasion of the Scottish Cabinet meeting in Hawick [1], the Campaign for Borders Rail (CBR) [2] has urged the Scottish Government to start planning for an 18-mile extension of the new Borders Railway [3] from its Tweedbank terminus through to Hawick – which is further from the rail network than any other town of its size in Britain [4].
In a briefing paper [5] submitted to the Scottish Cabinet, CBR argues that Hawick was the biggest loser from the closure of the 98-mile Waverley Route from Edinburgh to Carlisle in 1969 [6], one of the last of the infamous ’Beeching cuts’. CBR chair, Simon Walton, commented:
“A train service taking around 1¼ hours to Edinburgh was replaced by buses which needed 2¼ hours to negotiate the 51 miles up the A7 to the capital.
“Today, public transport from Hawick to Edinburgh – still provided by a basic bus rather than an express coach, and taking 2 hours 7 minutes – is slower than it was in 1901.
“Hawick’s population has declined – it has now lost the status of largest town in the Borders to Galashiels – and a large part of the Burnfoot district of Hawick is included in the 15 per cent ‘Most Deprived Areas’ of Scotland. A third of households in the town do not have access to a car.
“Two generations of Hawick people have missed out on the opportunities for access to education, employment and involvement in rail-based tourism which they would have enjoyed if the railway to Edinburgh had not been closed in 1969.“
He continued: “CBR acknowledges that there will be a significant improvement in the public transport journey time from Hawick to Edinburgh when the Borders Railway opens – around 1 hour 40 minutes, half an hour quicker than at present – but argues that this will not yield the step-change in journey time reduction and overall quality of service which Galashiels, Stow and Tweedbank will enjoy from 2015 when the 30½ mile Borders Railway opens.
“It concludes that an express rail service from Hawick to Edinburgh could complete the journey in just over an hour, ‘transforming the town’s accessibility and attraction’.”
The briefing calls on the Scottish Government and Scottish Borders Council to take action on three key issues, to start planning for onwards extension of the Borders Railway to Hawick:
* Scottish Government must urgently review whether the current predominantly single-track Borders Railway specification – which is still being finalised in terms of detailed design – is sufficiently ‘future-proofed’ to allow for extension to Hawick, for example through scope for cost-effective future lengthening of sections of double track beyond the currently planned provision.
* Scottish Government / Scottish Borders Council should commission a STAG (Scottish Transport Appraisal Guidance) analysis of the cost and benefits (economic, environmental and social) – of an18-mile rail extension from Tweedbank to Hawick, also serving Melrose and Newtown St Boswells.
* Scottish Borders Council should ensure that the Local Development Plan’s safeguarding of land for Borders Railway extension on from Tweedbank to Hawick and Carlisle also protects sections of potential new alignment of the railway from inappropriate development [6].
ENDS
More information: CBR chair, Simon Walton, on 01578 760686 / 07540 313018.
or chairman.bordersrail@uwclub.net
Notes for editors:
[1] The Scottish Cabinet is due to meet in Hawick on Tuesday 20th August.
[2] The Campaign for Borders Rail (CBR) is the grassroots group set up in 1999 to make the case for restoring rail to the Borders – the only region of Britain without passenger trains. CBR’s key aim was realised on 6th November 2012 when the Scottish Government’s Transport Minister Keith Brown announced that Transport Scotland and Network Rail had concluded a deal to construct the new Borders Railway – bringing trains back after an absence of more than 45 years. CBR’s overall objective remains the full reinstatement of rail services between Edinburgh, the Borders and Carlisle, of which the extension of the line to Hawick would represent a vital next step.
[3] The new Borders Railway will run from Newcraighall in south east Edinburgh to Tweedbank in the Borders. There will be four intermediate stations in Midlothian and two in the Borders. At 30½ miles length, this will be the longest rail re-opening in modern British history when services begin in mid-2015.
[4] When the 98-mile ’Waverley Route’ from Edinburgh via the Borders to Carlisle closed on 6th January 1969, it left Hawick and Galashiels further from the rail network than any other towns of their size in Britain – with Hawick the most isolated at 43 miles from Carlisle and 51 miles from Edinburgh.
[5] CBR briefing paper to the Scottish Cabinet is available on request from Simon Walton (chairman.bordersrail@uwclub.net) or via this link https://www.dropbox.com/s/wigwg8y429wk3ad/CBR%20Hawick%20rail%20briefing%20August%202013%20final.pdf.
[6] The CBR briefing notes that there have been a number of breaches of the old Waverley Route by new roads between Tweedbank and St Boswells, but there are “several viable options for new alignments where necessary to reinstate the railway“. South of St Boswells, while some of the former railway bridges over roads have been removed, almost all of the old route alignment remains in situ.
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Contact: Simon Walton
Phone: 07540313018
Email: waltonsg@uwclub.net
Website: http://www.campaignforbordersrail.org
