'Good progress' made behind scenes to push forward study into feasibility of extending Borders Railway
Councillors awaiting thumbs up from UK government
Last updated 10th Mar 2023
Scottish Borders Council says it's "close to being able to progress the work to develop the business case" for extending the Borders Railway.
Councillors today (Thursday) heard the Scottish Government has now accepted "the strategic case to process the feasibility work has now been achieved", and the local authority is now awaiting the same confirmation from the UK government.
Scott Hamilton (Conservative, Jedburgh and District), the council's Executive Member for Community & Business Development, was responding to a series of questions from David Parker (Independent, Leaderdale and Melrose), who requested an update on the project to extend the line between Tweedbank and Carlisle.
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Councillor Parker said "very little progress" seemed to have been made since the line between Tweedbank and Edinburgh opened more than seven years ago.
But Councillor Hamilton said: "In general terms, there has been good progress recently", referring to a meeting between the Borderlands Partnership Board and the Scottish Government.
"At that meeting, and the subsequent emails and correspondence that followed, the Scottish Government has now accepted that the strategic case to process the railway feasibility work has been now achieved, and we're now awaiting the same confirmation from the UK government.
"In essence, this means that we are close to being able to progress the work to develop the business case for the Borders Railway extension through the (Borderlands) Growth Deal and initiate the feasibility work."
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Both the UK and Scottish Governments have already pledged up to £5 million each towards the cost of a feasibility study.
Today's meeting heard the council is unable to confirm any timescales for the project, or who will carry out the work, until they receive that agreement from the UK government, and undergo a tendering exercise to appoint a consultant.
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But Councillor Hamilton said: "There's absolutely an agreement there to ensure that this project is not just about the transport element of it. Obviously that is the matter that is important, but there is also the economic development project side of things; there is also the environment which we've got to consider; plus the community benefits.
"There are also other elements which need to be considered, (including) freight and links to the HS2 network."
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