Sustainable Newburgh transport
A reopen rail station will bring sustainable public transport to Newburgh. It will mean quieter roads, less pollution and reduced congestion. But without a station road traffic will continue to grow. Not a state of affairs the government surely wants with its commitment to greener travel
No sustainable transport in this town
Photo by Robin McKelvie
Network Rail have created a Climate Action Plan as part of the Scottish Government's target of net zero emissions by 2045. The plan highlights delivery of social value benefits through job creation, training opportunities and reconnecting communities to the network. Ket to this is getting more people onto the rail network.
But are large, fully featured stations always the answer? The jury is out on the success of recently opened, large rural stations with very handsome prices! Would the deployment of a larger number of smaller, cheaper, modular stations be a better solution to getting more of the 17% of Scotland's population who live in rural areas access to rail?
​The campaign believes a cheap, small-form halt is the right solution for Newburgh
But the last short-form station opened in Scotland was at Beauly in 2013. It was seen by the then Transport Minister as a success.
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Beauly and Conon Bridge stations are clear success stories. They have brought big social and economic outcomes to the communities they serve. So why has these successes not being repeated in Scotland?
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Sustainable travel in Newburgh
The current bus services are essential for the 20% of townspeople who do not own a. car. But the service is widely regarded as unreliable. One of the main bus operators Stagecoach has pulled out of a number of routes serving Newburgh over the last few years. This November they stopped operating the service to Cupar, an important local administrative centre in NE Fife. They citing commercial reasons, too much road work and low passenger numbers - news to some.
How can develop trust in a bus service when the operator, with little notice, can discontinue a service for purely commercial reasons? Is low passenger numbers reason to not operate a bus?
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Some local political voices have suggested franchising a bus service or bringing it in back into full public control. These are welcomed ideas, but in the short to medium term would it be enough to get more people onto the buses?
The number of cars on the roads continues to rise. Together with an alarming increase in the number of heavy vehicles they are making the A913, the main road passing through Newburgh and Abernethy, an increasingly congested and stressed throughway - bringing pollution, noise and pedestrian traffic dangers to these small towns.
Surely no plans to push towards a net zero future can succeed without building more stations closer to where people live. Research strongly suggests that a well-run affordable train service can persuade more car drivers to switch to rail than can a bus-only service.
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A sustainable transport future in the town must be centred on a reopened rail station.
Does Newburgh need a long, fully-featured station?
Newburgh's proposal for a small inexpensive halt contrasts keenly with the price of recently opened stations.
The £22m Reston station, opened in 2022, is a fully-featured 'bells and whistles' stop. It serves the ten and half thousand people of East Berwickshire. The comparative cost of building Reston, comes in quite cheap. But some might see it as an expensive travel solution for a small community.​.
​Passenger numbers for Reston are not yet justifying the station's capital cost. The Glasgow Herald, perhaps unfairly, called it a white elephant. The station was modelled on a 30-year business plan -a long time to wait to gauge success or failure.
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There may be a future increase in passenger numbers, of course. but it is not apparent from local development plans just where this increase will come from.
Environmentally friendly travel solutions
​Reston station serve a sizeable catchment area with a small population. One assumes Transport Scotland, when appraising the new station business case, considered the means by which passengers from small towns and scattered rural communities would get to the station. Was it mostly car or bus?
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A key consideration is sustainability. If Reston station met this criteria were there assumptions made about any future coordinated bus service, maybe with a synchronised timetable? Are there plans to deploy electric buses across an expanded county network in the future?
Right now there appears to be no coordinated travel approach to connecting bus, rail and active travel paths. This will no doubt come, in time?
Reston absolutely deserved a station, of course
Newburgh deserves one too, but we believe a small unmanned station is sufficient for our needs. Were we to demand a station, with a platform enough for the longer trains passing through the town, we fear Transport Scotland's analysis would not be kind. The current cost/benefit model used to assess a proposed station's viability would set the cost of a large station against what would most likely be modest passenger numbers.
Unfairly, the current means to assess a proposed rail station's viability is slanted towards urban and semi-urban areas. ​
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A halt at Newburgh could be a very affordable and proportionately sized project with a small station having a very sizeable, positive impact.​​​
A short form station is enough
St Keyne Wishing Well Halt in Cornwall - By Geoff Sheppard
Increasingly the term halt is being reintroduced to describe a simple short platform station. They are simple, affordable modular designs, assembled on site
using sustainable pre-build factory components.
Assembly costs are low since fewer trucks are needed to bring components to a site. Carbon emissions are lower too and assembly does not require the same level of construction skills as does a traditional 'bricks and mortar build. ​
An unmanned halt can comprise little more than a short platform, a ticket machine, a shelter and an electronic timetable. Ensuring it is fully accessible, makes it a viable station. It can be deployed quickly at minimal cost AND it can be removed and deployed elsewhere if insufficient passengers use it.
The Campaign proposes a smaller, modular halt for our town.​​
Transport Scotland
We believe a better railway for Scotland is possible and we're investing over £4 billion to make it a reality
From the Transport Scotland website
Modern modular design techniques makes assembling a new station both cheap and easy to do. The Newburgh campaign believes it would be the best way to build a cost-effective, sustainable and proportional to the town's needs.
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Many smaller rail stations were once entitled 'halts'. Use of the term was removed from timetables by British Rail in 1974 then came back in 1978 for the opening of the IBM Halt in Greenock in Scotland. Two other stations opeen in England and are today identified as halts. The name is being increasingly used to distinguish a small station with minimal infrastructure from a larger fully-featured station.​
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​​​​There are many communities like ours sitting on or near a train line who could also benefit from a small station.
Pop up stations
In 2017 the Scottish Greens, concerned that few new rail projects had been proposed over the previous 12 years, suggested a number of initiatives to address this perceived inertia. One proposal was to create 20 small pop-up stations to test passenger demand.
It would speed up the lengthy and very onerous procedure for assessing the viability of reopening a new station.
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​A pop-up halt would be the simplest of station with a short platform - perhaps as little as 15 metres - a ticket machine, an electronic timetable, a simple shelter and sufficient infrastructure to make it accessible. The twenty sites suggested were mostly located in rural locations. One of them was Newburgh.
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Network Rail has built temporary stations. They built one in six days in Workington after the Cumbria floods in 2009. One is currently being considered in Wales.
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The idea was well received by Government.. The then Transport Minister. Derek Mackay agreed to consider a new “pipeline” fund of up to £2 million to develop new stations and lines.
But the idea was not carried forward and no pop-up stations were ever built. A Newburgh station go ahead would be the only one that might be fulfilled.
perhaps it is time to revive the idea of testing demand with pop up stations
The future of sustainable travel in Newburgh
A new rail station together with active travel paths and river taxis offers the possibility of healthy and sustainable transport for this part of North East Fife​​
A healthy Active Travel Path
The Perth and Kinross Countryside Trust are developing the Abernethy to Newburgh Active Travel Path. Transport and Planning Engineering are currently appraising options which route is the most optimum to run between the two towns.
An Active Travel Path offers a healthy options to cycle or wheel between nearby towns and villages. And when connected to the Fife Active Travel Routes there will be safe options to travel throughout Fife. It may tease some drivers to leave their cars at home and cycle to a reopened Newburgh station in an environmentally friendly and healthy way.​
It surely is the future.
Buses serving people and not profit
A comprehensive local hub and spoke transport must include a good bus service.
currently, the town is served by two services that do not reach all communities around Newburgh. It remains unreliable. In November this year, local bus operator Moffat and Williamson had to step in and run the Newburgh to Cupar service vacated by Stagecoach.
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Stagecoach has abandoned services to Newburgh before. Can a service ever be relied on when they are outsourced to private operators who can later step away citing it not being cost-effective (non profitable) as Stagecoach has done on a number of occasions.
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A reliable publicly owned bus service serves people and not profit. It reaches all nearby communities. For Newburgh, it should be synchronised with train timetables
- A joined up service that one day might connect with river taxis too!
Connecting with the River Tay
There is ambition from local councils and the Tay Cities Region Deal to promote the river Tay as a natural resource and tourism opportunity. For a long time it was the main transport thoroughfare for the region.
There are ongoing studies considering small, Venice-style water boats for the leisure market. A more ambitious proposal suggests bigger river taxis boats able to carry 15 to 20 people running between Perth and Dundee stopping at points between including Newburgh.
A small boat crossing between Newburgh and Dundee could be done in quicker time than it takes using public transport!​
Transport Scotland
"We are investing in a fully sustainable transport network, cleaning up, joining up and raising the visibility of the full range of transport options whilst encouraging people to think about how they make their journeys..."
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From the Transport Scotland Website
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Sustainable travel and the growth of ecotourism
Newburgh can thrive as a town whose economic heart is sustained by healthy sustainable travel and leisure.​
Ecotourism in Newburgh is a distinct opportunity. The town is surrounded by beautiful countryside. It is the home to beavers, otters, ospreys and much more. And -
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The town is popular with walkers and cyclists.
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The popular Fife Coastal Path starts in the town.
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There are recognised cycle routes passing through Newburgh.
A joined up rail and cycle/walk path network offers great opportunities to develop walking and cycling related tourism.
A boon for health living and sustainable travel.