CBR has responded to Network Rail’s draft Long Distance Market Study for consultation (see link below). Key points raised by CBR were:

1. Is NR’s analysis model perhaps overly biased towards flows where reasonable long-distance rail services already exist, unlike the situation in the Central Borders?

2. The study should treat the Scottish Borders as a ‘single economic area analogous to a city-region’ in the same way that the North Wales Coast or Cornwall have been.

3. Subsequent stages of the study should carefully examine the case for reinstatement of the Carlisle–Borders–Edinburgh link as a more cost effective means of addressing Anglo-Scottish capacity problems in the shorter term.

130627 LTPP-LDMS CBR Response

Following yesterday’s launch of substantive engineering works, The Scotsman today reviews the progress of the rail re-opening project, quoting CBR Chair Simon Walton and rail consultant/author (and CBR member) David Spaven. In contrast to the many stories about the ‘troubled’ Borders Railway in past years, the tone of coverage is now noticeably more positive!

http://www.scotsman.com/the-scotsman/transport/350m-borders-railway-work-begins-1-2901446

CBR Chair Simon Walton welcomes the start of construction works, and looks forward to the next phase of the re-opening campaign, south from Tweedbank, in today’s press release:

Untitled

Another milestone in the return of the railway was reached today, with Transport Minister Keith Brown officially launching the start of substantive construction works, as reported by The Scotsman:

http://www.scotsman.com/news/transport/350m-borders-railway-work-begins-1-2901446

London-based CBR activist Nick Bethune has kindly drawn our attention to the fact that the full set of engineering drawings for the Borders Railway has been posted on the web – more evidence that the railway really is coming, in case you were rubbing your eyes and asking if it really was true after all!

http://www.bordersrailway.co.uk/maps-plans.aspx

The Scotsman reports a new analysis of Beeching’s cuts which ranks the Waverley Route as the worst line closure in Britain.

http://www.scotsman.com/the-scotsman/transport/450-miles-of-scots-railway-dodged-beeching-axe-1-2848941

Produced by rail consultant, author and CBR member David Spaven – with help from two rail industry colleagues – the table (see link below) ranks fifteen different routes by length of line closed / distance from the remaining rail network / population / ‘strategic connectivity’.

Beeching closures comparison final summary table

Spaven comments:

“There may be knowing smiles that the route about which I’ve written a book tops the table – but my colleagues actually prevailed upon me to increase my initial score for the Waverley Route, as they felt I was trying too hard to be seen to be scrupulously fair in the analysis! Since closure left the Borders as the only region of Britain without a rail service, and no other towns as large as Galashiels and Hawick as far from the rail network, I think the overall judgement is probably correct.”

Today’s Edinburgh Evening News takes the report which Saturday’s Herald used to try to discredit the Borders Railway – and sees the positive side of the story!

Under the headline ‘Borders rail link could cut 530,000 road trips’ the paper quotes author (and CBR Life Member) David Spaven on various angles ignored by the Herald:

“There has been a tendency to be over pessimistic about the number of passengers who will use the new railway and we know from experience that many rail reopening schemes have done enormously better than forecast.

“Because of the limits of modelling, it probably doesn’t pick up on what the railway can do in terms of tourism – with the massive number of tourists in Edinburgh looking for other things to do, there is scope for attracting them to Sir Walter Scott country – Tweedbank is just a mile from Abbotsford. I doubt whether that has been factored in.”

Read the whole story on:

http://www.scotsman.com/edinburgh-evening-news/transport/borders-rail-link-could-cut-530-000-road-trips-1-2820819

An article in New Civil Engineer magazine – to which we’ve been alerted by the Capital Rail Action Group – suggests that September 2015 will see the start of train services on the Borders Railway. Although much of the text of the article will be familiar, there are one or two other interesting snippets – but regretably CBR is not mentioned in the potted history of the rail re-opening campaign. See:

http://files.groupspaces.com.s3.amazonaws.com/files/43985/682774/New%20Civil%20Engineer%20article%20on%20Borders%20railway%2C%2014%20Feb%202013.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=0A8Z1WYDADBF2DZEBCG2&Expires=1362415426&Signature=Yp7MQeYGPwBGW2%2FqNjIDr0a2eXY%3D

Following a cobbled-together front page story in the 2nd March Herald, which tried to cast doubts on the business case for the Borders Railway, readers of the paper – including David Steel, and Paul Tetlaw from Transform Scotland – have today set the record straight with a fine array of ripostes. See:

http://www.heraldscotland.com/comment/letters/borders-cannot-afford-not-to-have-a-rail-link-with-capital.20393211

The latest CBR newsletter welcomes the go-ahead for the Borders Railway and urges supporters to get involved in the first phase of the campaign to push the railway south from Tweedbank. Read all about it in the attached link.

CBR — Newsletter #43 — February 2013__