IF you could take a direct train through the Borders to Carlisle, through the Great Glen from Inverness to Fort William, or from Dumfries to the ferry in Stranraer, would you?
Rail campaigners argue that you might at least consider those trips if the option was a comfortable, fast train over narrow, congested roads.
But, throughout the second half of the 20th century, it became harder and harder to do so without a car – and now, in the 21st century, it’s becoming harder and harder to do so in car as congestion piles up.
The first part of that, the loss of Scotland’s branch railway routes, is most famously associated with Dr Richard Beeching, after whom the infamous Beeching Cuts were named. But the cuts started before his report, and they continued long after.
In the 1950s, more than 5300km of track was closed completely or reduced to freight-only services under Clement Atlee’s Labour government, laying the groundwork for the more drastic cuts in the 1960s spearheaded by the Conservatives and Beeching, then serving as the chairman of the British Railways Board.
His report – The Reshaping of British Railways – identified more than 8000km of track for closure, roughly 30% of the entire network. The goal? “Make the railways pay”.
The rationale was that many of the UK’s railway lines ran on largely duplicated routes, stemming from the “railway mania” of the late 19th century, when private companies built up large networks of their own routes to compete against each other. When the railways were brought under government control in 1948, this competition turned into redundancy for some routes.
This economic rationale resulted in every rail line in the UK being characterised on a sliding scale for various different factors, including the amount of passengers, freight and coal carried and revenue generated from ticket sales.
Scotland was hit hard, losing huge swathes of its rural branch lines, leaving the Borders as the only local authority in the UK without a single connection to the network, and stripping away key connections like Dumfries to Stranraer, known as the “Paddy Line” for its link to the ferry to Northern Ireland.
Campaigners engineer Gareth Dennis, author of the best-selling book "How The Railways Will Fix The Future" and host of the weekly railway #Railnatter podcast, has argued that looking towards reopening some of these key routes would produce a Scottish rail network fit for the future.
One of the clearest examples of rail’s appeal sits in one of the regions worst hit by the mid-20th century cuts. The Borders Railway – a route opened in 2015 as the spiritual, shorter successor to the “Waverley Route”, which despite community protests, blockades on the line and pleas from the local MP, fell under Beeching’s axe in 1969.
Its passenger figures have “far exceeded” what was outlined in its business case report, good news for the future of its operations – which look likely to be extended to Carlisle, completing the revival of the 158km Waverley Route – but a hidden issue Scotland needs to resolve if it is to unlock further rail buildouts.
Consultancies are using models that “consider rail in isolation”, Dennis explained, adding that to create a truly efficient, sustainable and accessible transport network that works for all of Scotland, policymakers need to look beyond individual proposals and passenger estimates.
“Induced demand goes both ways” he explained. Expanding road networks while playing down opportunities for rail revival – often using pessimistic feasibility reports – is, in his view, producing missed opportunities while leading to spiralling expenditure which could have instead been used on infrastructure.
In practice, every extra lane proposed to ease congestion on roads draws more vehicles onto it. Without a multi-modal network across Scotland which reduces the dependency on road travel, the roads will not become easier or faster to use.
When these alternatives, namely rail, are built, they have their own appeal to draw in passengers. Searching through the National Records of Scotland, a clipping from the Press and Journal in November, 1967 described the Strathspey Railway as one of the “loveliest 38 miles in the world” before it was closed, while railway historian and author David Spaven discussed the possibility of offering viewing carriages on tourist-heavy routes to support revenue generation by appealing to tourist and day-trippers in his book The Battle for the Borders Railway.
But Scotland’s natural landscape isn’t the only benefit – “buses get stuck in the same congestion”, Dennis told The National, discussing why – while buses serve a crucial role particularly in connecting communities – their ability to provide reliable inter-city or cross-country transport is limited.
Not only do they need to wait in the same traffic as private vehicles, they also suffer from the same delays when faced by heavy snow or flooding – issues locomotives are much better at handling.
These two factors intertwine with the case of the A9, where the key road is increasingly congested as the main route connecting North to South.
An explosion in tourism – spurred on by the enduring popularity of Harry Potter and Outlander – the presence of heavy good vehicles (HGVs), and the everyday commute of local residents has led to the road reaching its capacity, impacting driving time and safety.
This is expected to continue to grow – potential up by 50% in peak season by 2050. The SNP have made commitments to expand its capacity by duelling the road, but Dennis warns they risk turning the issue into a political dogma that is more symbolic in nature than it is effective.
“Reducing long-distance private traffic is crucial” if we want to make shorter, local journeys made by private car or bus easier and cheaper, he said. In the case of the A9, many of the key rail connections already exist, with the Highland Main Line running along much of the route, offering the key connection between Glasgow and Inverness.
What is needed now, Dennis explains, is strategic investment into the route to provide overhead electrification and longer trains with more capacity. “By rail, the fast journey takes around three-and-a-half hours”, he said, compared to around three hours by car – without any delays from congestion – “electrification would close this gap”.
The A9 and the cross-border extension of the Borders Railway are not Scotland’s only “strategic gaps”, he added, explaining that in most cases major roads connecting moderate-to-large towns – those with above 10,000 residents – should have a corresponding rail link.
While speaking to Dennis he outlined several of these – a new form of the lost “Paddy Line”, extended to meet the new connection in Cairnryan, to ease pressure on the A75 could become one of Scotland’s “most important” rail connections, while investment into the A90 corridor north of Aberdeen could encourage investment into the area’s industry.
Another corridor is the A82 – which suffers from similar congestion to the A9 with intersecting demand from locals, tourists and industry – between Inverness and Fort William.
Not only could this remove pressure on the struggling local road networks around the towns and scenic hikes while likely offering panoramic views of some stretches of the Great Glen, but it would also open up a new north-south link to tie in with the wider network.
For those smaller, the case for rail becomes more difficult, but with an expansive view of transport, an improvement in bus services that in turn connects to wider regional rail links can still “fill the gaps” and contribute to a rail-forward future for Scotland’s transport.
