Trains to return to Borders after 40-year absence

Date: 6/11/2012

Trains serving the Borders are expected to return after 40 years without service, following successful negotiations over a historic agreement.

Keith Brown, the Scottish Transport Secretary, will sign the document in a special ceremony at Newtongrange in Midlothian in order to give Network Rail the responsibility for delivering the rail route.

The route, once completed, will see trains running between Edinburgh and the Borders after a gap of more than four decades.

It was January 1969 when the last service ran on the Waverley line from Edinburgh through to Carlisle.

A completion target had been set for the end of 2014, but it now seems unlikely that this will be achieved as it has taken two years to get through the contract process.

The campaign to re-open the line has been running since 1999, but MSPs did not pass the Bill to allow it to happen until 2006.

In 2010 there were three organisations in the running to undertake the project, but after two fell by the wayside, it was decided last year that Network Rail would take the scheme forward.

It is also thought that the route between Edinburgh and Tweedbank may exceed the £295 million budget which has been set aside for it.

When finished the line is hoped to bring economic benefits to the Borders as the people living in the area will have better links to employment, housing and leisure facilities.

Critics have said that the money could have been better invested in the road infrastructure of the area, but the train will be accessible to more people.

Mr Brown announced last week that the time taken to travel between Edinburgh and the Borders on the new line will be less than an hour.

Once the contract has been officially signed the responsibility for the project will be transferred from Transport Scotland to Network Rail.

Posted by Mary Treen

Transport News and Transport Consulting News