Is overcrowded Borders Railway simply a victim of its own success?
WHEN it opened in 2015, it was the longest railway line to be opened in the UK for 100 years.
The Borders Railway connected the Borders with Edinburgh, and was hailed as a so-called corridor between the two that would bring investment and prosperity to the region, thanks to seven new stations along the line.
But, after three years – and more than four million passengers – the Borders Railway has become a victim of its own success, with an “acute level” of overcrowding, campaigners have said.
The Campaign for Borders Rail (CBR) has collated performance data for the Borders Railway and concluded that in the period leading up to Christmas last year trains were often too full for customers to board.
The group suggests that the level of overcrowding is “hardly a good way of encouraging rail travel in Midlothian and the Borders”.
Robert Drysdale, a CBR committee member who collated the data, pointed out in the group’s February newsletter that the 10 per cent average increase in capacity of Borders Railway stations during 2017-18 was largely concentrated in the Midlothian stations.
Almost two million journeys were made on the line in the course of a year but some peak services had just two carriages.
Mr Drysdale said the number of carriages was “totally inadequate for the volume of commuters using the service.”
The campaign group also noted that a significant number of services were cancelled in the weeks leading up to Christmas last year.
On December 14, for instance, 104 services were cancelled in one day.
On Christmas Eve, Scotrail was served a warning notice by Transport Secretary Michael Mathieson requiring the company to formulate a remedial plan to deal with the cancellations.
The campaigners’ concerns about the Borders Railway is the latest in a number of recent calls for Scotrail to sort out their struggling services.
On Saturday, Jamie Stone, MP for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross, wrote an open letter to Mr Mathieson urging him to drop Scotrail’s contract if the service does not improve.
Mr Stone wrote: “In their heart-of-hearts all Scottish MPS and MSPS will surely agree with me, regardless of their political persuasion, when I say that the travel experience for customers of Scotrail falls very far short of anything that could be described as acceptable in this day and age. If Scotrail doesn’t make speedy and noticeable improvements the Scottish Government should cut its contract at the first possible opportunity.
“A worrying number of trains are either cancelled or late (at great inconvenience to customers) and all too often the on-board food and drink service is simply not there.”
Last week it was reported that Scotrail chiefs were asking former drivers to come out of retirement to make up for a staff shortfall that was leading to cancellations.
A spokesman for Scotrail said: “We know that one of the biggest concerns for our customers is busy trains and we do all that we can to meet the increasing demand.
“Everyone at the Scotrail Alliance is working flat out to deliver the level of service our customers expect and deserve.”