Rail campaigners to re-enact blockade to mark 50 years since former Waverley Line closed
The decision to close the former Waverley Line is being blamed for decades of economic decline in the Borders.
Now, exactly 50 years since the last train ran the full length of the route between Edinburgh and Carlisle, both the UK and Scottish governments are being urged to reverse the damage - by agreeing to extend the Borders Railway.
Campaign for Borders Rail chairman Simon Walton says reopening the line as far as Tweedbank has already proved a phenomenal success.
He said: "We are closer than ever to seeing a new strategic cross-border rail link established, and the benefits of that will be felt keenly, not only in the region, but by the economy across the entire UK rail network.
“The phenomenal success of the Borders Railway is a clarion call to governments on both sides of the Border. Rail services work as a catalyst for economic development.
"Now, with the Campaign’s aims firmly on the agenda in both Holyrood and Westminster, and a cornerstone of the Borderlands Growth Initiative, it’s time to build on that success by committing to realising this vital new infrastructure through a beautiful but economically blighted part of the United Kingdom.”
The last scheduled services to run on the former ‘Waverley Route’ departed Edinburgh and London on January 5, 1969. These were overnight sleeper services of which the southbound train was famously blockaded at Newcastleton in the early hours of January 6, in a show of widespread civic dismay at the loss of rail services.
Campaigners are marking the occasion by staging a re-enactment of the blockades which took place that day at the new rail terminus in Tweedbank.
The event's being organised to coincide with the arrival of one of the last trains to run on the route - a Class Fifty diesel locomotive. It's making a return to the region as part of a special excursion, which leaves Birmingham at 4.55am - it's due in Tweedbank at 1.35pm.
Meanwhile, it's hoped an announcement on a feasibility study into the extension of the Borders Railway will be made in the coming weeks.
Carlisle MP John Stevenson says he'll be "very disappointed" if funding for the document isn't included in the Borderlands Growth Deal. He was appointed champion for the scheme, which is designed to bring growth and prosperity to the region:
Speaking at the Campaign for Borders Rail's AGM in October, Mr Stevenson said: "An opportunity to expand the railway line from Tweedbank into Carlisle I think would be a great initiative. Hopefully within the growth deal there will be funding for a feasibility study and that's the first step, hopefully, into seeing the railway reintroduced.
"I think there is a recognition that creating that connectivity and that communication between all sides of the border is so important.
"And I think we, as politicians, sometimes forget that actually most people ignore the fact that there is a border and get on with their lives, whether it's to go to work, for retail, or to meet family and friends and we've got to recognise that. So, we've got to make it as easy as possible for them to do that."