Highland Mainline Community Rail Partnership
Spring Newsletter
We apologise for the delay in our Spring news, as usual it has been a busy start to 2024 and many events and projects to attend to. However, at long last, the sun is shining and we are out and about. In what has been the most challenging and difficult wet winter for many years, we have endured storms and flooding from early October until early February. This resulted in frequent closures of the railway line and at times the A9 was blocked by snow, on at least one occasion, stranding vehicles at Drumochter Pass and flooding on the A9 south of Ballinluig cut off travel. If this winter has been a portent of weather to come, we are in for a much more difficult time in Scotland.
Good News - ScotRail Suspension of Peak Fares Extended
The trial of removing peak fares for all ScotRail services, in response to the post Covid travelling patterns, has been extended to the 28th of June 2024.
Bearing this in mind, how about making some extra journeys, using this cheaper option, to prove to ScotRail and Transport Scotland that it is worthwhile?
Environmentally, if one in five of everyone’s journeys was made on Sustainable Transport, it would cut carbon emissions by 20%.
AGM at Aviemore and the “Flying Scotsman”
We held our AGM in the Grant Arms hotel in Aviemore last September and after formal business and a light lunch, we ventured across to the Strathspey Railway platform to visit this iconic train and take a trip. It was a lovely afternoon and some small thank you to our volunteers who have stayed with us over the last few turbulent years.
We were also delighted that Simon Hinsley stepped forward as our new Secretary to take on the Administration of meetings, minutes, agendas et al. Thank you Simon.
From our Communities and Stations
Blair Atholl Station
It is full steam ahead for the “Friends of Blair Atholl Station” group’s heritage project, which will create a history of Blair Atholl Station, thanks to funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund and Struan Trust.
“Sharing our Past, Building our Future” is designed as an inter-generational oral history project. The group have started by recording memories from older residents – they have great stories to tell about travelling by steam train and working on the railway and at the station. All these memories will be edited into podcasts for their website. One story is being transformed into an animated cartoon, which will be shown to the children at Blair Atholl Primary school at a workshop in June. They will also make the cartoon available on their website and publish it as a story book for every child in the village. “Mike’s Station Story” traces the station from 1943 to 2023, when the Friends of Blair Atholl Station groups was formed. There are two additional aspects to the project, 3d images of four station artefacts will be created and a social history of station employees based on the 1881 census. All of this work, much of it done by volunteers, will be displayed on the website and at a community exhibition in the summer.
The heritage project is an important step towards reclaiming our empty stationhouse building and restoring it in the future. Follow the group on Facebook or Twitter and check out their YouTube channel. If you would like to get involved email friendsofbastation@gmail.com
Friends of Blair Atholl Station is a sub-group of Blair Atholl & Struan Initiative.
Aviemore Station
Following a competition run by the Society of Badenoch and Strathspey Artists, there are now 5 lovely artwork posters for the station. The posters are all done in the style of vintage railway advertising, depict local beauty spots around Aviemore and have been created by Kingussie artist Bob Kinnaird. The posters are all printed and stored at the station- we are currently arranging to get these in place, - we hope to have them on display in the next few weeks. Other plans for artwork at the Station are in the pipeline, depending on what’s do-able with the listed station building.
Several barrel planters were established in late summer and we enjoyed a few weeks of colour. These will be replanted in Spring. Barrel hoop stays are also to be painted to match the old LMS colour “Crimson Lake” of Aviemore Station. The barrel train has been relocated from the Strathspey Railway platform and will be planted in Spring. It’s condition is deteriorating though, so we may have to source a new one.
A key aim this year is to widen the pool of volunteers at Aviemore. There is a poster advertising the Station Adoption Scheme going up to appeal for volunteers. And also contacting local community groups and others to generate some help.
Resource boxes for the “Travelling Classroom” were delivered to Aviemore School in December 2023.
Dalwhinnie Station
We are delighted to say we finally have been able to put back the “Monty” plaque at Dalwhinnie Station for the local community. This project was well on the way to becoming an Icelandic Saga, but all’s well, that ends well and the cleaned and restored plaque commemorating Monty’s visit in 1944 to plan his military campaign on the Rapier has been superbly mounted on whisky cask staves donated by Dalwhinnie Distillery. We would like to thank everyone involved in this project, John Wilson – ScotRail , Angus Munday – our man in Dalwhinnie, Signs and Designs in Bridgend Perth, Dalwhinnie Distillery and finally the ScotRail team who were able to fix it in place, despite being so busy with the severe weather conditions. We are very grateful to everyone who helped us with this.
Now for the clock!
Carrbridge Station
Carrbridge Station has long had a dream to re-open the Waiting room and provide some shelter for passengers from the worst of the winter elements, following a visit from Tim Hedley-Jones of the NRHT, there is an opportunity to work on a feasibility study to see if the dream can be realised.
We have had a watchful eye on the heritage desk in the station, but were amazed to find freight orders still inside it from 1929, and considering Carrbridge runs the Golden Spurtle competition, amazingly the orders were from Quaker oats, an absolute gem!
Carrbridge Primary School were delivered their “Travelling Classroom” resources in December.
Pitlochry Station
The restoration and refurbishment of the oldest Semaphore Signal P21 is almost completed, the Signal arm is being put back and then, once we have had a couple of trees removed, it will go permanently into the Armoury Park behind the old Signal Box. Due to the massive amount of storm damage this winter and so many trees needing removal from roads, gardens and parks, we are having to wait our turn! So, as is ever the case, things are taking much longer than we had hoped. It was ever thus!
The Pitlochry Station Bookshop continues to do well and attended the “Winter Words” festival at Pitlochry Festival Theatre as well as donating books for the visitors room at HMP Perth, another great initiative.
The Bookshop and Pitlochry Station are going to be hosting one of the CHAS “Hairy Coos” on the Wild Art Trail this summer, so do come along for a look. There will be 3 “Coos” in Pitlochry all part of the 30 sponsored around Perth & Kinross area as a fundraiser for the Childrens Hospice Association Scotland. This is such an amazing charity, and one the bookshop supports with its charitable donations.
During the winter, the Placemaking and Planning meeting at Perth & Kinross Council voted on Network Rail’s proposal for design and location of a new footbridge, lift towers and demolition of the Victorian footbridge. Voting was 9 to 2 against the plans, so we will hope that NR can improve on the design/location plans for sometime in the future.
We are also delighted to have engaged with our local High School and the Art pupils in S3 who have produced some delightful new posters to replace the ones produced by Pitlochry High School and Breadalbane Academy schools in 2012/13 for the celebration of the 150th anniversary of the opening of the line on 9th September 1863. These will soon be going into production and will be put in place later this year. Very apt, as last year marked the 160th anniversary of the railway coming to Pitlochry.
Dunkeld & Birnam Station
The Royal School of Dunkeld were also finally delivered their “Travelling Classroom” resources and the children have been fully involved in the discussions and plans for the improvements for access to the station.
There has been much achieved in the past few months as the local community have engaged in a great deal of consultation as to the many issues surrounding the station. Not least the parlous condition of the building itself, but accessibility for pedestrians, the A9 dualling route, access at the station. Lighting and salt storage.
Dunkeld & Birnam Station Community Group are now working in collaboration with Network Rail, Historic Environment Scotland, Perth & Kinross Council, Paths for All, Sustrans and ScotRail on three work streams.
Access to and from the Station to the village; securing a safe future for the Station building for long term Community use; Access within the Station – to make accessibility easier for everyone, including accessing the trains from the platform!
There has been a Network Rail & Community led access workshop with all stakeholders and outcomes were shared with the wider community in January – this focussed on improved access via Birnam Glen and platform developments that should start making progress this year. On larger proposals, Transport Scotland have set out their proposals for rejoining Station Road to the community, and another option has been proposed by the Community as well – either of these could progress as a Station development without waiting for the dualling proposals to be developed and come into place. A useful meeting was led by John Swinney MSP after the last wider community engagement and to discuss proposals on access and platform that were presented by Network Rail.
A community engagement about the community purpose for the building is in the second phase and will be shared with the Community Forum for further discussion and wider community thereafter. The Royal School of Dunkeld have had two workshop sessions about community use of the building and also access options, they have fed back on developing conversations and continue to be part of and lead parts of community chat.
The local group have their own Facebook page and you can follow their progress and the community engagement with Network Rail and ScotRail and Transport Scotland.
Kingussie Station
The opportunity was taken for a visit to Kingussie Station and catch up with Jill Robertson of “Wild Thinking” who purchased the vacated space at the railway station from Highland Council, when they moved out of offices there. It was a difficult time as it was only months before the Covid lockdown and the project, like so many others, had to wait a longer time for completion.
Well, it has been worth waiting for!
New Boutique Group Accommodation
The Railway Rooms is the former station house newly renovated and now re-opened for exclusive use. It is an accessible and refreshing self-catering accommodation in the heart of the Cairngorms National Park. It’s right on the Kingussie railway station platform and offers comfortable, characterful and environmentally friendly self-catering accommodation with 12 en-suite bedrooms for groups of up to 24 people. It has been redeveloped by team specialists Wild Thinking, the Railway Rooms are a great destination for work teams and groups of all sorts wanting a low-carbon and exclusive venue to escape to in the Highlands, especially by train.
www.railwayrooms.co.uk
We also enjoyed our final meeting of the 2023/24 year at the Railway Rooms at the end of March and here we all are, deep in discussion about Sustainable Travel and promoting rail travel.
We must also report there are still incidents of difficulties for disabled passengers having to use Platform 2, we have raised this with ScotRail and await a response.
Thoughts from “Friends of The Far North”
Plans to electrify most rail services and eliminate the most polluting traction are enshrined in Scottish law, but its ability to do much about it is in severe doubt. The latest budget shows an £80 million cut in rail spending alongside £210 million increase for roads. Network Rail has scrapped plans for a bridge to replace the level crossing at Delny, north of Invergordon, as the cost has soared to nearly £13 million. Friends of the Far North Line now hope for an upgrade instead to allow a higher line speed.
Both the Highland Main Line and the Far North Line need more double track or passing loops to increase their capacity and improve the flow of traffic. The early morning business train leaves Inverness 12 minutes earlier than it used to and gets in 17 minutes later, while the 12:34 from Wick to Inverness now takes 4 hours 34 minutes; in 2000 the same journey took 3 hours 48 minutes.
Reading Joseph Mitchell’s papers in the National Records office show on the Dunkeld to Forres line, as was the route then, of 104 miles, there were 8 viaducts, 126 bridges over streams, 119 public or accommodation bridges, 8100 yards of covered drains, (from 18 to 36 inches square), 1650 lineal yards of breastwalls, 304, 700 cubic yards of rock cutting, 3,416,000 cubic yards of earthworks.
Cost £798,311.
One wonders what the eye-watering total cost will be to electrify the Highland Main Line taking into account all the engineering work needed to achieve this.
Scottish Rural and Islands Transport Community
We are very well aware of the great work being undertaken by the Scottish Rural and Islands Transport Community and have attended some of their meetings/webinars and workshops. Last November they organised a workshop at the Scottish Rural & Islands Parliament and completed the Scottish Rural and Island Parliament – Transport Forum Report.
View Report Here.
Modern Railways Conference
A most enjoyable event in Edinburgh, slightly earlier this year than last. And a good update on the current situation in Scotland.
Glasgow Conference
The Scottish CRP’s attended the Peloton event in Glasgow and took the opportunity to conduct a survey to gauge how much attendees knew about us. It was slightly alarming as the results were collated as, even within the industry, few had awareness of Community Rail in Scotland, despite our best efforts, nor of any projects undertaken. We will have to attempt to raise awareness of the Community Rail Partnerships in Scotland!
ScotRail meeting in Glasgow Queen Street Station
Some of the Scottish CRP’s attended and enjoyed the presentation of the proposed programme of new rolling stock and an update from the ScotRail Community Team. We also got the opportunity to meet Sandra Rutherford, who takes over from Tracy Stevenson, to run the Station Adoption programme. We shall be seeing more of Sandra as we are pretty much all Station Adopters too on the Highland Main Line CRP!
Caroline Thompson-Noble CRN - Sustainable
Travel Co-ordinator (Scotland)
We are also very sorry to lose Caroline, who attended our Kingussie meeting in the Railway Rooms, as her last official meeting in Scotland. We would like to thank her for her wonderful support and encouragement in what has been a difficult period for some of the Community Rail Partnerships in Scotland. We look forward to beginning our journey with Rob Hattersley soon.
Alex Hynes moving on.
We send our very best wishes to Alex Hynes as he moves on to his new role for the DfT.
We look forward to some better weather and wish everyone a great summer.
