Amid a field of giant hogweed on the fringes of south-east Edinburgh, history was made last week [August 6] as the concrete pourers moved in to create the first new bridge for the new 30-mile Borders Railway to Tweedbank.
The line, sponsored by the Scottish Government and being built by Network Rail at a cost of £294m, follows the old Waverley route, closed controversially by Beeching in 1969. It will be the first new domestic main line built in Britain for more than 100 years.
Last week’s bridge works at Millerhill were part of a new deviation out of Edinburgh from the existing suburban terminus at Newtoncraighall, before it picks up the route of the Victorian railway. A huge new embankment has been built for temporary diversion of the busy Edinburgh bypass next month [September] as a 130ft tunnel is excavated under the road.
With the line due to open in summer 2015, there is activity all along the route as a trackbed is scored from the golden brown clay of the undulating Borders landscape – among the most scenic in Britain.
Overgrown cuttings are starting to look like a railway again as de-vegetation machines move through and surviving bridges and viaducts of the old route are rendered and shotblasted. The historic 22-arch Newbattle railway viaduct has an ingenious new use as a route as take the heavy spoil lorries off the roads. Further along the line at Fountainhall, Network Rail have relocated some rare lampreys from Gala Water to protect them from damage. Construction at the Tweedbank terminus was formally inaugurated on July 23.
“At the moment, it a bit like the civil engineering for a road, said Craig Bowman, Network Rail’s project spokesman. “But soon we’ll be moving onto the railway side of things – signals, ballast and so on.” In six months time, Network Rail and their main contractor BAM will have 1,100 workers on the site.
Meanwhile, the Edinburgh Evening News last week [August 5)] reported that the railway, which will have a peak half-hourly service with a 55-minute journey time, has led to a housing boom along the route. The number of new houses in Midlothian has doubled in the past year, many of adjacent to new Borders Railway stations.
