All aboard: The train now arriving is the first for more than 50 years
IT is a journey that no-one has made by train for more than 50 years – but yesterday it restarted with the inaugural service to Levenmouth in Fife.
On board were Scotland’s First Minister John Swinney, the staff who made it happen, and some people who remember the line from the last time it was open, way back in the 1960s.
The trip starts at Edinburgh, then it’s up past Burntisland, with the Firth of Forth on the right, and on to Thornton junction where the reopened stretch of Fife coastal line begins.
It has taken £116 million and many years to get here.
There are two stations on the six-mile line – Cameron Bridge and Leven – and the local people have come out to celebrate.
Along the bank of the River Leven, and on the platforms and up on the bridges, people are waving at the first train in this neck of the woods since the 1960s.
On the platform at Cameron Bridge, one guy has even taken his guitar and plays the train into the station.
John Swinney thinks he knows why people in this area are so enthusiastic.
Speaking at the official opening ceremony at Leven station yesterday morning, he said it was a day of celebration and joy for the community, and a chance to “resolve a historic wrong” and reconnect the community to the rail network.
“I am delighted that after 50 years of the community being excluded from the rail network that we have resolved that today,” he said.
Mr Swinney said it was an opportunity to connect the communities to the “beating heart of our country” and to open up economic and social opportunities, enabling more investment, work, education, leisure and recreation. He also hoped it would encourage more people to leave their cars behind and help the government to meet its net-zero targets.
But many of the local people want more. There was a time in the 1960s when the Fife line – which will run 37 trains a day from Sunday – went all the way round to St Andrews, and many campaigners would like to see that happen again.
However, speaking to The Herald, Mr Swinney said there were many barriers in the way.
He said: “We would obviously love to do more but one of the issues we wrestle with is the cuts to capital expenditure that are coming from the UK Government and the persistence of the austerity agenda.
“In our term in office, we’ve constructed the Borders railway, we’ve delivered Airdrie/bathgate, we’ve delivered Levenmouth, we’ve extended the number of stations, so we want to do more but we can only do what we can with the resources we have at our disposal.”
Mr Swinney added: “I’m very open to considering projects but we’re in the middle of a UK General Election campaign and austerity has been crippling investment in infrastructure.”
One of the local people who is hoping for more is hotelier Tony Voss, who runs the Upper Largo Hotel in Leven and was on the inaugural journey.
He hopes to see more visitors and economic regeneration. Mr Voss added: “I was very much a supporter of the new line. It will make a huge difference.
“I think it will open up an artery from a lovely part of Fife to Edinburgh and the other way around. It will be tremendous.
“There have been a few negatives, the moaners, but I’m a great believer that if you build it they will come. And the next argument is to extend it. This is the first step.”
Also on the train was 87-year-old Albert Nye from Leven, who worked as a signal master on the old Fife line for 47 years before it was closed as part of the notorious Beeching cuts in 1969.
He said: “I used to travel to school on the railway line and started on the railway at 16. I can see the train station from my home and I’ve enjoyed seeing it progress.
“This is the first time I’ve been on the line since the 1960s and it’s fantastic.”
Speaking at Cameron Bridge station, Joe Mulvenna, project manager for the new line, said there was “passive provision” at Leven, meaning it could easily be extended further.
Mr Mulvenna said the reopening was particularly poignant for him as he’d worked on the railways since he was 16 and the Fife line was his last project before retiring.
He also said he would like to see more projects like Levenmouth across the country.
Mr Mulvenna added: “Leven was cut off for 50 years.
“And maybe in an area of deprivation, we’ve given kids here the opportunity to go to college, go to university, get into Edinburgh and get out and about.
“I think we should be reconnecting more communities.”
I used to travel to school on this line. This is the first time I’ve been on it since the 1960s and it’s fantastic