European Railroad Discussion > The Borders Railway

This weekend I've been in Scotland to ride, and photograph the new 30 mile Borders Railway from Edinburgh to Tweedbank. It represents about a third of the former North British Railway's Waverley Route, which connected Edinburgh with Carlisle in England and which was closed, amid great controversy in January 1969. Well today part of it is back, opened last month by the Queen, conecting the central Borders region with Edinburgh every half an hour. 

I almost didn't make it, at 18:15 on Friday, as I was on my way home from work, I received a voicemail from Caledonian Sleeper to say that owning to a technical problem the Edinburgh portion of the Lowland Sleeper was cancelled, but that they were putting on a bus instead - a bus for 400 miles - or I could catch the 07:00 Virgin East Coast train from King's Cross the following morning. As I was taking my bike, and because the weather forecast for Edinburgh & The Borders on Saturday morning was not very promising, I took the latter option, although Caledonian Sleeper assured me that the bus would carry my bike. I just didn't fancy 8 hours on a bus, if I had I would have booked a seat on Megabus for £1!

But as it happened Virgin did me proud, left King's Cross on the dot of 07:00 and pulled into Edinburgh on schedule at 11:25; giving me 30 minutes to retrieve my bike from the DVT on the back of the train, buy a ticket and find the Tweedbank train, which I rode to Gorebridge, cycling from there some 16 miles to the next stop at Stow, which took me over the summit at Falahill. Ok, the trains are pretty mundane but the railway is just wonderful, and whilst there's criticism that what has been built doesn't offer much opportunity for service expansion, to ride over a railway consigned to the scrapheap almost 50 years ago is very special. So here are a few pictures, there are more at https://nick86235.smugmug.com/Trains/2015/Autumn-2015/i-pFR2Q4H

You can't get away from the Borders Railway at Waverley, not surprisingly it is everywhere.

A 158 approaches Gorebridge,the use of stone filled Gabions has reduced the road bed so that only a single track can be accommodated, many who campaigned for the railway are dismayed that this will prevent increases in service, or accommodating special trains. Just south of Gorebridge is the end of a lengthy passing siding, which Network Rail call 'dynamic loops'.

A 170 on an Edinburgh bound train at the end of the loop just south of Gorebridge, the footbridge in the distance is that in the second picture.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/26/15 05:17 by 86235.

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These three shots were taken on my ride along the railway, from Heriot south you can get off the main road, following a minor road on the west side of the Gala Water valley, which is extremely pleasant riding

Climbing to Tynehead

Breasting the Falahill summit

A typical Borders stone farm house, with added railway!

On Sunday I spent the morning chasing trams around Edinbugh on my bike, before ctaching the 15:00 back to London King's Cross. 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/25/15 16:54 by 86235.

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Very nice photos, Nick. I've still to ride the new line. Ive used VTEC numerous times to take the bike to London, an excellent service. Chris uk.

I am a U.S. subscriber to Rail Magazine and have been following the news on the Borders line for a long while.  I hope to be able to ride this the next time I'm on your side of the pond.  Thanks for the photos.

55002 Wrote:
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> Very nice photos, Nick. I've still to ride the new
> line. Ive used VTEC numerous times to take the
> bike to London, an excellent service. Chris uk.

Thanks, it's a good ride whether you are on the bike or in the train! Virgin were very good, the guard was aware of the Caledonian Sleeper cancellation so there was no problem carrying the bike despite me not having a reservation, and I got an unreserved window seat on the right hand side, which is where all the views are. Running was very good, we lost five minutes because of problems at York necessitating single line working out of the station, but by Drem were two minutes early and pulled into Waverley precisely on time at 11:25. Train was very busy, amazingly so for an October Saturday, although I suppose it was the start of the half term school holidays. Full from Kings Cross, the first substantive stop is York where we exchanged about half a train load, same at Newcastle and at Berwick we picked up Saturday shoppers going to Edinburgh. On the way home yesterday the 15:00 covered the 126 miles from Waverley to Newcastle in 77 minutes, an average speed of 98 mph, arriving five minutes early. Arrival in Kings Cross was a few minutes down courtesy of congestion around Newark caused by what looked like a GBRf STP freight train from Doncaster to Peterborough, which was looped at Carlton on Trent to allow three Virgin trains past, we were the third. All in all train travel as it should be.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/26/15 12:25 by 86235.

May we see some of your photos on the Tram? wag216

Oh yes, here's a link

https://nick86235.smugmug.com/Trains/2015/Autumn-2015/i-XVJ5vjr

I enjoyed your work! Thank you. wag216

I was hoping to do this line on the Pathfinder railtour, which of course was caped two days prior owing to being unable to obtain confirmed timings from Notwork Rail. Hope to visit next year now

That's a great pity, but does bear out what the campaigners have complained about, that a trick has been missed by not allowing for special trains, which would support tourism in the Borders.