"Extending The Borders Railway To Carlisle" with Peter Heubeck: 20 April 2026.

Peter Heubeck brings to the Campaign for Borders Rail a varied background in operations, freight, infrastructure and planning including engineering logistics and materials procurement. Formed in 1999, the Campaign for Borders Rail has a thousand subscribing members and successfully pressed for the Borders Railway to reach Tweedbank. It has subsequently lobbied for the present study into the further extension of the line, and is now seeking a positive outcome.

The Borders Railway is a unique project, being Britain's first major reopening outside an urban area with 31 miles of new railway. Delivered quickly and cost-effectively in an unbeaten record of achievement despite major challenges, it went from design through build and commissioning stages in just 34 months at an average cost in 2012 prices of £12M per route-mile, and since opening in September 2015 has transformed access between central Scotland and the Borders.

The engineering challenges that had to be overcome included old mine workings (many of them uncharted), missing sections, getting under the Edinburgh City Bypass, reusing old structures, strengthening earthworks particularly on the climb up to Falahill, incorporating some new alignments, digging out infilled cuttings, removing colliery spoil and raising the stretch through Galashiels - its Parliamentary powers did not provide for all of this, and some negotiation was required with landowners. The key point from the Borders Railway experience is that if you use competent people and plan carefully, complex railway reopenings don't need to cost the earth!

Since reopening the Borders Railway has carried 13 million journeys in ten years in spite of CoVID, with predicted traffic levels greatly exceeded. Longer trains have had to be introduced and parking expanded in keeping with additional housebuilding as people relocated to the Borders, bringing inward investment to Galashiels and Tweedbank which is now a very popular railhead, and discontinuous electrification is now getting under way.

Development of ridership showed immediate heavy loading from Galashiels and Tweedbank, with the Midlothian stations slower to take off - the opposite of what had been forecast. Lately the Midlothian ones have caught up with housebuilding, and the travel mix has changed post-CoVid with latest figures showing continuing growth all along the route. However these benefits are not enjoyed by all in the Borders, which is a vast area. Transport connectivity for many is still poor, with ageing populations, declining communities and suppressed economic activity contributing to unfulfilled tourist potential.

So the UK and Scottish Governments are funding a major transport appraisal with a budget allocation of up to £10M split 50:50 via the Borderlands Inclusive Growth Deal with Scottish Borders Council as the project lead in collaboration with Transport Scotland and the Department for Transport. Turner & Townsend have been appointed as project managers, with bids invited for this phase from six consultancies.

Then came Center Parcs, its first incursion into Scotland with the prospect of a £400M holiday village opening near Hawick in 2029 giving a huge boost to local towns including also Selkirk. The forecast is for 350,000 visitors per annum with year-round occupancy of 95% occupancy and possibly 80-85% of customers coming from Scotland. However the location is remote from the motorway network, peak flows could be twice-weekly with Monday and Friday changeover days, and neither Hawick nor Selkirk has a bypass.

The Transport Appraisal is now focusing on the Central Borders to Carlisle corridor, and following TS, DfT and Treasury guidance will be multimodal in character. With the Case for Change accepted by TS and DfT, Scottish Borders Council aims to let contracts for the Strategic Outline Business Case in May with the likelihood of a 15-18 month duration so that it may then inform the Outline and Final Business Cases. Extending the Borders Railway via Melrose and St Boswells would widen its economic and social benefits, providing sustainable access to Center Parcs, while going beyond to Carlisle would give direct connectivity to the Borders from England. With the resultant stepchange in sustainable tourism, the multiagency and local authority view recognises the great growth potential.

There could also be opportunities for moving round timber by rail from Borders forests and for providing additional crossborder capacity. Invaluable data has been provided by the experience of constructing the line so far, and by the impact already seen, and another strength is that most benefits would not require extra paths on the congested East Coast Main Line into Edinburgh. There is support from the manifestos of four parties for the 2026 Holyrood election, and implementation could be staged. The challenge now is to manage a complex appraisal to sensible timescales. Many costs and benefits have to be evaluated in a study involving two Governments which must take account of affordability and of maintaining political support through our volatile times.

Complications are posed by capacity constraints on the existing Borders Railway which, being aimed at multiple-unit trains, was not engineered for more than the occasional mainline locomotive and made no provision for freight. The hill sections south of Hawick pose their own engineering challenges, including the tunnel at Whitrope, and whereas many forest product factories are nearby the economics of timber by rail require long-distance flows.

So the Borders Railway has been a remarkable success, showing as did Airdrie-Bathgate before it how to go about a major reopening, and the Transport Appraisal is a great opportunity to determine costs and benefits. The Campaign for Borders Rail will input to the study, seeking political support for the Borders' best interests in recognition that big opportunities and challenges lie ahead.

Forfurther information on the Campaign for Borders Rail, visit their website at www.campaignforbordersrail.org

Report by John Yellowlees.