Driving forward a master plan to bring business and tourism into the heart of the Borders
● New campaign to get a head of steam comes two years on from line reopening
Its closure was among the most controversial of the Beeching cuts. Despite widespread opposition and at times physical protest, the Waverley Route connecting Edinburgh to Carlisle via the Scottish Borders carried its final passengers in January 1969.
Fast forward five decades and the route’s partial replacement, the Borders Railway, stretching 35 miles from the Scottish capital to Tweedbank, just beyond Galashiels, would appear to be flourishing, attracting visitors and new investment into the Borders communities that it serves.
There are now calls for the line to be continued 60 miles further south to Carlisle, reinstating the original historic route, with ministers pledged to look into the feasibility of such an extension.
As the new Borders Railway hurtles towards its second anniversary, the partnership that oversees the service is confident it can convince more businesses to relocate and expand thanks to the existence of a reliable alternative strongcomponentwithpotential for growth particularly off the back of Edinburgh’s events programme.”
While the route has suffered some disruption caused by conductors’ strikes, trains breaking down and signalling faults, as well as facing criticism that much of it remains single track, thereby restricting service capacity, a recent independent study provided plenty of encouragement.
More than 90 per cent of respondents agreed that the railway promoted access between the Scottish Borders/ Midlothian and Edinburgh, a similarly high percentage agreed that it encouraged a shift from the car to public transport, and 79 per cent agreed that it improved access to Edinburgh’s job market.
Meanwhile, almost twothirds of tourist users stated that the line was a factor in their decision to make their trip and almost a quarter stated that they would not have undertaken the journey were it not for the new railway.
Dibsdale says that gaining access to a good work/life balance is becoming an increasingly important factor for people, with the railway making commuting from Borders settlements to the capital a more viable, year-round, proposition. He is also alive to the fact that any expansion of local communities has to be controlled.
“One of the aspects I am working on with the blueprint group and authorities is master planning the key settlements in and around the stations – making sure you can maximise the opportunities so that you have sustainable access to the railway as opposed to uncontrolled sprawl.
“The topography in the Borders is a restricting factor anyway, controlled by valleys and rivers, but you have to ensure a good mix of uses so that it isn’t all residential.
“For a business audience, it can be more of a slower burn in terms of making a decision on relocating and the like,” he adds. “Part of the campaign we are running is around general awareness. And by the end of the year the vast majority of the areas along the line will have access to high-speed broadband, which is increasing as new housing comes on stream.”
“From my perspective, it is clear that the existing line is giving rise to an economic benefit and that will only continue. We are really only at the tip of the iceberg.”