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On track for change

Taking the train to work is not part of the North-east culture.

In Glasgow, for example, only 5% of the passengers arriving at Queen Street and Central rail stations have travelled more that 100km - in Aberdeen it is 50%.

However the evidence is clear that commuters are prepared to change if the proper opportunities are presented.

The reopening of Laurencekirk Station and timetable enhancements between Aberdeen and Inverurie havedemonstrated that literally thousands of people are keen to leave their cars behind in favour of the train.

Now pressure is growing for a new station at Kintore which, lost its previous one in 1966 as a result of the Beeching cuts.

It is estimated Kintore would attract double the number of passengers as have flocked to the overwhelmingly successful Laurencekirk Station which reopened in May last year.

Laurencekirk has proved a tremendous springboard for the Kintore campaign.

Using mandatory Government standards for predicting potential numbers it was calculated it would add 692 passengers a week on the Aberdeen to Dundee line. In actual fact the numbers are almost double that and are averaging 78% above the predictions.

NESTRANS had been confident that the national formula underestimated the potential numbers likely to use the route and therefore the potential benefits were also underestimated.

Director Derick Murray feels the same applies to Kintore although in the light of similar experiences across Scotland where the predictions were far lower than the eventual reality the Scottish Government has agreed to examine the national standard.

Kintore is the ideal location for a new station with the structure plan dictating that much of the future growth of the North-east will take place along the railway corridor from Inverurie to Stonehaven.

“So there are going to be quite a lot of houses constructed and jobs developed along that Inverurie corridor and one of the main places they are going to go is just north of Kintore with some at Kintore itself,” said Mr Murray.

“That road is fairly busy already with commuter traffic coming into Aberdeen with long queues at Dyce Drive and Haudagain in particular. The Western Peripheral Route will help but if we put in a lot of new houses at places like Kintore what will also help is if we can have a railway station there before the houses are completed. Then, when people move in, they will have the choice of taking the car, bus or train and then the train becomes a much more attractive proposition.

“What we are trying to do is put in the infrastructure at the same time as we are going for the increases in the number of houses and studies have shown that Kintore is going to have double the number of passengers Laurencekirk has.”

One of the obstacles NESTRANS faces is that Kintore is currently a single track railway line but any developments undertaken must allow for the possibility of a double track station in the future.

That means moving the track which adds to the cost but land for a new station with a double track and parking for around 100 cars has been earmarked on a Greenfield site to the north of the village.

A single track also makes timetabling more complex but Nestrans believes it would be feasible for up to 10 trains a day in both directions, a similar level of service which has proved successful at Laurencekirk.

Most of these are Glasgow to Aberdeen trains which have already been extended to Inverurie and that has the added benefit of ensuring that the journey times would not be increased on the Aberdeen to Inverness trains.

“These trains are on a pretty tight journey time so we would try and avoid stopping them at Kintore,” said Mr Murray.

“We have a dichotomy in that is we have a national railway on which we are trying to provide a local service while still aiming to get the fastest possible journey times to Edinburgh, Glasgow and Inverness.

“Our ultimate aim is a faster national service with a comprehensive local service. “We estimate a single platform station at Kintore would cost £6million and a double platform station £16 million. The increase in cost for a double track station relates to the extra track, the signalling and bridging.

“Laurencekirk was closer to £4m for a double platform, car park and bridge but that was because the track itself was unaffected – all the work was off the track.”

Transport Scotland and Network Rail started looking at the feasibility of upgrading the Inverness to Aberdeen track last autumn and their first report is due shortly.

“We have suggested to the government that we would be happy to contribute to a single platform station in advance of them doing the Aberdeen to Inverness railway works. That would probably mean slewing the track and putting in one platform. Then at some later date a second platform and bridges could be added and serious signalling issues could be addressed.

“If Network Rail is satisfied this is feasible we would hope that we could go ahead and do it as early as possible to get a service up and running. When that is depends on the Ministers but Laurencekirk, from Ministerial approval through to cutting the ribbon, was between three and four years.”

• The original aim of the much debated Aberdeen Crossrail project was for a 15 minute service in and out of the city from Stonehaven to Inverurie.

The vision was for a “big bang” single project but cost made that prohibitive so NESTRANS (The North East of Scotland Transport Partnership) decided to tackle the works incrementally to ensure immediate benefits.

This have included the introduction of five extra trains a day to Inverurie which has significantly increased the number of passengers.

Before the extra trains there were around 15,500 journeys from the town each month and that has now climbed by more than 42% to 22,100.