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Rail Engineer • October 2016
NEWS
Scotland's next railway? Her Majesty the Queen opened the new Borders railway on 9 September 2015. Although hampered by some reliability and punctuality issues, it has been a great success, carrying one million pasengers in the first year of operation. Now, the LevenMouth Rail Campaign (LMRC) seeks support for the re-opening of a five-mile rail line to Leven and Methil. Although out of use with heavily overgrown track, the line is still part of Network Rail’s infrastructure and has an operational connection at Thornton Junction. It would serve a population of 37,000, the largest conurbation in Scotland without a rail service. There is also potential for two intermodal freight trains a day to serve Diageo’s distillery and bottling plant, which is one of the largest in the UK. On 23 September, LMRC arranged a conference in Methil to progress its campaign. This was attended by the area’s four Members of Parliament (one MP, three MSPs) who all expressed their strong support. Fife Council has committed £2 million for the development of the scheme, which includes funding two feasibility studies which demonstrate the benefits of this new line. However, its Deputy Leader, Lesley Laird, expressed frustration that the next step wasn’t clear as there is no roadmap for rail re-openings. LMRC is now seeking the Scottish Government’s commitment to this project. As the Levenmouth scheme would bring benefits comparable to the Borders railway at a fraction of its cost, they feel they have a strong case.
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