Borders Railway celebrates 4m passengers in 3 years
● Extension to Berwick or Carlisle to be considered
A total of 4.1 million journeys have been made on the Borders Railway since it opened, the Scotrail Alliance announced on its third birthday yesterday.
The 30- mile Edinburgh tweed bank route carried 1.45 million passengers over the past year, 5.8 per cent more than the previous 12 months.
That followed 1.3 min the first year and 1.37 min the second year–up 5.3 percent.
However, unlike previous rail re-openings, the line did not exceed its projected firstyear target. No projections for subsequent years were made.
The Stirling-alloa route, which opened in 2008, attracted 400,000 passengers in its first year, two-and-a-half times the expected 155,000.
The Borders route could be extended to Berwick-upontweed or Carlisle.
A final pre-appraisal report on the Borders Transport Corridors study is due to be published later in the autumn.
Transport secretary Michael Matheson said: “The railway has been a phenomenal success as it continues to grow in both popularity and bringing benefits to the local economy.
“The increase in passen- ger numbers since it opened demonstrates it is acting as a catalyst for investment while opening up employment, leisure and education opportunities along its length.
“We continue to look at ways to develop the potential of the line, and the recommendations from the Borders corridors study will, in turn, feed into the on-going Strategic Transport Projects Review.”
Scotrail Alliance managing director Alex Hynes said: “The Borders Railway continues to provide a strong and reliable transport connection, benefiting employment, leisure, tourism, and business. Reaching the milestone figure of four million passenger journeys demonstrates the success of what was an ambitious project.”
But campaigner David Spaven, author of Waverley Route: the battle for the Borders Railway, said: “Given the continuing unreliability of the railway, in many ways it’s remarkable patronage is steadily growing.
“Over the last year, trains from Tweedbank to Edinburgh have only achieved the punctuality target to which the railway was designed – 92.5 per cent of trains arriving within five minutes of schedule – in five weeks out of 52. There have been just four weeks in which no trains were cancelled.”