Great Western Coffee Shop

Why am I posting this under our "Berks and Hants" heading?  Because it's an out-of-area campaign I came across that has so many parallels in Berks and Wiltshire that it provides food for thought and a study - we can all learn from each others. 

The "other" line from Carlisle to Glasgow has always had stops at Annan, Dumfries and Kircolonel; stations at Greta and Sanquar having closed several generations ago but re-opened within my memory.  And there are now requests / suggestions that stations at Eastriggs and Thornhill be re-opened, together with a request / suggestion that Beattock on the main line from Carlisle to Glasgow should also re-open.

On Saturday, I spoke with a gentleman who's in the lead group for Thornhill.  He was telling me that it's about halfway along the 25 mile gap between Dumfries and Sanquar, double track, old platforms still in situ but would need replacing. Of a village of around 9,000 in population that it would serve, centred about a mile from the station site.  About school traffic, traffic to Carlisle and Dumfries, and a lesser extent to Glasgow, and about tourism in the area.  Estimates of rail traffic with the station re-opened are about 100k per annum.

It strikes me that both Eastriggs (middle of a 12 mile gap) and Thornhill have cases worth looking at. I understand Eastrigg's traffic estimate is around 50k journeys per annum.  There's an element of competition in adding 4 minutes to the run time of trains that stop at either and "would more minutes be a problem".  There should also be a huge element of co-operation because (from a passenger viewpoint) an extra few minutes on a very infrequent service makes only a small difference, but the extra passenger numbers gerenated by both stations will surely help cases for service improvements in the future, and joint marketing - pulling in Greta, Annan, Dumfries and Sanquar to share their already-learned expertise for the good of the line makes sense.

Other elements that came / come up.

Thornhill is on a double line.  Two platforms to re-open?   Footbridge?  A suggestion that one platform and a pair of crossovers might work (as per Malton) is something I would rather not comment on either way - I simply don't know.

Traffic abstraction.  How many of every 100 passengers using the train at Thornhill would be doing so instead of using Dumfries station?  Effect on any parallel bus services?

Local "road"side facilities. How would the roads / lanes cope?   Parking?

Businesses and attractions?   I think some were mentioned to me for Thornhill ... for Eastriggs, I 'picked up' the Devil's Porridge Museaum. 

It seems that as well as GRIP, Scottish schemes have to go though three stages of STAG (Scottish Transport Assement Guidelines?) and the team / teams are on to that.  Just as with England, a long process but I do hope to be able to report further.

The Berks and Hants has stations.  A disparate mix of services and some gaps in what they provide. In some elements, one is ahead ... in some elements, the other is ahead.   One to keep an eye on and see if there are parallel lessons, me thinks.   But I will not be suggesting opening a porridge museum (for any sort of porridge) at Savernake.