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Passenger services begin on Borders Railway

Passenger services began yesterday on the Borders Railway, Britain’s longest new domestic railway built for more than 100 years.

On Saturday the lucky holders of ‘golden tickets’ enjoyed preview journeys along the 30 mile (50km) route, with many commenting on the stunning scenery and how much quicker journeys will be than going by bus.

Infrastructure minister Keith Brown said: “The Borders Railway has become a symbol of this golden age for Scotland's railways, and it will be the vehicle for a new prosperity for the communities on the route.”

The Queen will perform the ceremonial opening of the £294m new line on Wednesday.

Almost all of the new line sits on the existing route along the Waverley Line that was closed back in 1969 – though the new project only reaches as far as Tweedbank, whilst the old line went all the way to Carlisle. The Borders Railway line branches out after Newcraighall, with seven new stations built: Shawfair, Eskbank, Newtongrange, Gorebridge, Stow, Galashiels and Tweedbank.

Last week, ScotRail unveiled today the first of 40 revamped Class 158 trains as part of a wider £14m modernisation project. It left the Knorr-Bremse RailServices’ Springburn depot in Glasgow in preparation for running services on the Borders Railway.

From Thursday (10 September), heritage steam train journeys begin on the new railway, hauled by the 60009 Union of South Africa, one of the six remaining LNER Class A4 steam locomotives in the UK, built in Doncaster almost 80 years ago.

Track laying began less than a year ago, on 6 October 2014, and finished in February this year. BAM Nuttall was the principal contractor to Network Rail, which was appointed by the Scottish government to deliver the scheme when the original procurement process fell through. The construction work itself progressed well, although it had some safety problems along the way. The project as a whole was delivered years later than originally expected, however.

Although the new route is not electrified, it has been engineered to allow for easier OLE installation in the future.

The Scotsman paper reported that about 1,200 passengers had travelled on the line by 4pm yesterday. Among those it spoke to was Andrew Bethune, who was 16 when the old line was closed. He told the paper: “When the first train came in from Galashiels [on Saturday] it was really quite emotional. This is brilliant.”