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A future of sustainable, active transport - and fewer cars 

A sustainable Newburgh

Network Rail  have created a Climate Action Plan as part of the Scottish Government's target of net zero emissions by 2045. The action plan highlights the delivery of social value benefits through job creation, training opportunities and reconnecting communities to the network.

Newburgh needs a rail station to properly connect Fife to a wider Scotland and the Scottish economy

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For Newburgh, the development of a sustainable travel plan has to include a rail station. It is the greenest forms of long-distance public transport and a ready-made solution for a low carbon future - with quieter, safer roads and cleaner air. Train travel reduces carbon emissions by two-thirds.

​And there are plans to make train travel greener still. Main lines are being electrified, and new forms of battery and hydrogen propulsion are being trialled in Scotland.

Moving the current operational network to net zero future must clearly go hand in hand with getting more people onto the network.. But are large, fully featured stations always the answer? The jury is out on the success of recently opened £15 or £20 million stations. Would a larger number of smaller, cheaper, modular stations be a better solution?

We believe a cheap, modular station is the right solution for Newburgh

We know there are many communities like ours sitting on or near a train line who could also benefit from a small station.  But the last short-form modular station opened in Scotland was at Beauly in 2013. It was seen by the then Transport Minister as a success. 

 

Here, in Newburgh, we wait patiently to get access. The bus service does not attract enough people away from the car - the largest transport polluter. - and so the motor vehicle remains the principle means to travel. 

 

No plans to forge ahead towards net zero can be complete without getting more stations opened - even small ones..

Introducing the halt (the small station)
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St Keyne Wishing Well Halt in Cornwall - By Geoff Sheppard

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 IBM Halt in Greenock in Scotland. That halt closed but meanwhile two other stations in England opened 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.

 

The Newburgh Train Station Campaign proposes a smaller, modular halt for the town.

The halt can be a very affordable modular design, assembled on site using sustainable pre-build factory components. Assembly costs are low since fewer trucks are needed to bring components to a site. This also reduces the level of carbon emissions and the 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-form platform, a ticket machine, a shelter and an electronic timetable. Providing it is made fully accessible, this is pretty much a station.

 

It can be deployed quickly at minimal cost AND it can be removed and deployed elsewhere if there are not enough passengers using it. From a government perspective -

 

what is there not to like?

Transport is responsible for over 30% of the greenhouse   gas emissions in Scotland. 66% of this comes from the road sector.

Declining bus provision in Scotland makes it hard for the Scottish government to meet its commitment to reduce car miles by 20 per cent by 2030, relative to a 2019 baseline. While bus miles have decreased by 27 per cent, the total distance travelled by passengers has dropped precipitously by 44 per cent.

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

​"Bus times are a nightmare so won't use plus they stop at certain times in the evening. No good would rather take the train. Plus with an extra large family, trains would ensure more quality time together as a family as there are too many of us to fit in a car"​

Newburgh Resident

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..."

From the Transport Scotland Website

Big shiny new stations or small, ‘no nonsense’ halts

 

A halt, compared to other recently opened stations, would be a very affordable project that would have a significant, positive impact.

 

A bargain compared to the big boys

 

The low cost of Newburgh's proposed station contrasts keenly with the costs of recently opened stations for villages smaller than our town. One, the newly opened Reston station, has been called, perhaps unfairly, a white elephant by the Glasgow Herald.

 

So far, passenger numbers for Reston do not justify the cost. The go-ahead for the station was modelled on a 30-year business plan -a long time to wait to gauge its success or failure. 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.

 

Big station vs. small station

 

These new  rural stations need to serve a sizeable catchment area to generate passenger numbers justifying the price to build. How then do these passengers get to the station? One assumes Transport Scotland have plans for greener, electric buses running more regularly over an expanded network to connect the station to its hinterland. And this coupled with active transport – walk, cycling and wheeling is the future.

 

Is this likely to happen anytime soon?

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

The cost of a temporary 10m single door, operational platform at Newburgh can be as low as

£150,000

And you can take it back if nobody uses it!

Currently, bus services in many parts of rural Scotland remain unpopular with car drivers. And a countrywide network of clean buses and cycle paths is a fair way off.

 

In the current financial climate, is there wisdom in building fully-featured train stations, approval for which, one assumes, is predicated on there being a significant rise in the number of people living in the catchment area?

 

But is this increase assured?

 

As a tactical solution, why not instead build smaller, halts more suited to the communities they serve? Fewer car journeys are needed to reach them, they can be built quickly, cheaply and without much fuss. Surely this is the more sustainable approach to getting more people onto the rail network?

 

They can be removed and moved elsewhere. If they do not attract sufficient passengers. Modular designs can be easily disassembled and moved to elsewhere.

Sustainable active transport in Newburgh

 

So, a halt is a long-term investment in sustainable transport for North East Fife. It would complement the expected extension of the National Cycle Network to Newburgh. As a town popular with walkers and cyclists, a joined up rail and cycle/walk path experience would be both environmentally sensible and would  encourage new local business ventures. Cycling tourism, as an example, would provide work not only within the cycle focus business but it would increase  opportunities for visitor accommodation, cafes, bars and such like.

"I would travel by train if it stopped in Newburgh. Buses are far too infrequent. Can't use public transport for work at all...Options for Newburgh are almost non existent - infrequent, expensive, so I travel everywhere by car. Can't go out at weekends as there is no way of getting home late evening. No direct route to Dundee at all .. Other towns are well catered for - why not us?"

Newburgh Resident

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Newburgh is growing

 

Planning permission has been given to build some 232 new properties in Newburgh.  This will mean a substantial increase in Newburgh's population. This, in itself, is not a problem. But without improved infrastructure and better public transport, many new residents will mostly commute to work by car using the increasingly congested A913. They too will compete with the growing volume of heavy lorry traffic from the nearby quarry and elsewhere. This is NOT sustainable travel. So let Newburgh get a station and let us start the journey towards greener travel and healthier living.

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"The fact is that if we want to go further afield, to either Glasgow or Edinburgh, we need to travel to Perth first. A train station at Newburgh would solve this".

"I cannot get directly home to/from Edinburgh, and so have to factor in extra transportation, costs and time".

"Frustration at not being able to access frequent and fast public transport".

Newburgh Transport Survey

This 2018 survey captures Newburgh's frustration with public transport. It is still VERY relevant today

A recent IPPR* Report states

IPPR Logo

*IPPR is an independent charity of researchers, communicators, and policy experts who look towards a fairer, greener, and more prosperous society.

Declining [rural] bus provision in Scotland makes it hard for the Scottish government to meet its commitment to reduce car miles by 20 per cent by 2030...the total distance travelled by bus passengers has dropped precipitously by 44 per cent.

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