Delays ‘epidemic’ on Borders line
IT was announced with great fanfare – and rail enthusiasts hailing it a lifeline service.
But now campaigners have condemned ‘shocking’ service levels on the flagship £350million Borders Railway and say delays and cancellations are of ‘epidemic’ proportions.
ScotRail figures show only about one in four trains on the new line – 28.4 per cent – arrived on time at the start of this month.
At least 70 trains were cancelled in the first ten days of August, with problems blamed including track and train faults, a driver on sick leave and a fallen tree. The poor performance comes as the line is used by many more passengers than predicted.
The service, from Edinburgh to Tweedbank, is expected to notch up 300,000 more passenger trips than its target of 1.3million by its first anniversary on September 6. Rail consultant and author David Spaven said a lack of double-track sections of line where trains can pass each other had hit reliability badly.
He said: ‘The Borders Railway has proved to be a classic penny-wise, pound-foolish project.’ He added the Scottish Government, Network Rail and ScotRail need to produce a ‘robust recovery plan before large numbers of rail travellers abandon this seriously unreliable railway’.
A ScotRail spokesman said: ‘As always, we do everything we can to keep customers moving when things go wrong and we’re working to ensure reliability matches the demand for services on this new line.’
Transport Scotland said: ‘We’re committed to ensuring ScotRail delivers a punctual and reliable rail service across the network and addresses issues around punctuality to give passengers the very best service possible.’