Next stop St Andrews: The little railway that could

The awkward Leuchars stop of your outbound/inbound journeys may become a thing of a past. No longer will the bus/taxi debate keep us up at night as talks of St Andrews’ very own train station are chugging the right direction.

Thanks to the unyielding efforts of St Andrews Rail Link (StARLink), the town of St Andrews is coming closer to rebuilding a railway connection to the East Coast main line.

The previous St. Andrews railway met its death at the hands of British Rail 44 years ago. The advent of the new rail line, which would cost no less than 76 million pounds, could be the culmination of a 25-year effort from StARLink.

It won’t be cheap to construct, but according to a study by Tata Steel Projects (TSP), the route could measure 8 km and run along Eden Valley. TSP indicated that hourly services to Edinburgh would take one hour 19 minutes and hourly services to Dundee would take 22 minutes.

StARLink successfully placed a bid to submit a formal report to the North-East Fife area councillors and will present their report later this year. Convener of StARLink Jane Ann Liston told The Courier, ‘I found the reaction from the [North-East Fife area councillors] very encouraging. The news that the committee will be considering the matter further is most heartening.’

This isn’t a time for anyone to hold his or her breath, however. Liston also acknowledged to the Courier that further financial and environmental analysis is needed.

For now, the next stop is to get funding from transport partnership SESTRANS, Fife Council and Transport Scotland ‘to conduct the [Scottish Transport Appraisal Guidance] to define the business and environmental case.’

So whether you are all aboard or off it (ha-ha, punny), you can get all the facts here!

Image courtesy of starlink-campaign.org.uk