John Hibbs was best known in Scotland for the Transport in the Borders report he produced for David Steel, then Liberal MP for Roxburgh, Selkirk and Peebles, in late 1968. It represented a last-ditch attempt to salvage something from the impending closure of the 98-mile “Waverley route” main line. Hibbs backed the retention of a drastically rationalised single-track railway from Hawick through Galashiels to Edinburgh but – despite widespread opposition to closure – it came too late, and the line closed completely in 1969. However, 46 years later Hibbs’s vision will partly be realised, with the September 2015 opening of the 35-mile Borders Railway from Tweedbank and Galashiels to Edinburgh.
