Site of Cowbraehill Bridge

As the project moves into its build phase, advance works are in progress at various locations on the route. Removal of a defective accommodation bridge at Cowbraehill will allow for its replacement by a new structure. Some of the masonry from the old bridge will be reused on the Borders Railway project. The image shows the Waverley Route trackbed and the cleared site of Cowbraehill bridge.

Here’s more, in a press release from Transport Scotland.

The 17 mile Ebbw Vale line, re-opened  to passengers in 2008, has been a HUGE success….take note anyone still doubting the justification & traffic potential for reopening the Northern part of the former Waverley main line route from Edinburgh to Galashiels/Tweedbank.

The Welsh Assembly Government is increasingly supportive of rail schemes after the reopened Ebbw Valley line met its five-year target of carrying a million passengers in ONLY 18 months!

Network Rail is now progressing schemes to extend the Ebbw Valley line into Ebbw Vale town centre and also allow trains to run direct between the existing Ebbw Vale Parkway terminus and Newport, in addition to those already running to Cardiff.

– Transport Briefing 8/10

Mr Chairman, Secretary of State, Ladies & Gentlemen

On behalf of your sister organisation looking to see the provisions of the 2006 Waverley Railway Act of the Scottish Parliament carried through, I should like on behalf of the Campaign for Border Rail to congratulate you warmly on all that you have achieved down here at Whitrope and to wish you every good wish for your continuing development. You are particularly to be commended in being the first along the line of the old railway actually to have permanent way on the ground. We look forward to the appearance of JCBs and operatives in high viz jackets along the valley of the Gala Water hopefully within the next 18 months. When that happens we can perhaps relax a little in the face of continued sniping in some parts of the media and the political establishment against the plans to restore rail links to the Borders.

I am constantly amazed by the short-sightedness of the anti-rail brigade. In the shorter term, a recovering economy is going to see crude oil prices creeping up again – very probably reaching $150 a barrel as early as next year. The £10 a gallon pump price for petrol is nearer than you think. (Hands up those who are happy with that prospect. I thought so).

In the longer term, at some point a future Scottish Government, irrespective of political allegiance, is going to have to address the fact that growing use of the railway network, both for the passenger and trainload freight markets, is going to be constricted by the fact of there effectively being only two double track crossings of the Border – that at Gretna and the other many miles away near Berwick. A glance at an Atlas will show that the latter in particular, is not best placed in terms of Scottish centres of population and industrial development.

Michael, as a Westminster minister, you have only an oversight role in terms of what is carried through in terms of the devolution settlement, but you are our local MP taking an active interest in the economic well being of our corner of SE Scotland. The amazing U turn on the Damascus road by your main opponent in the recent election presumably is for some dark political reason but we are confident that you along with all sensible people will continue to strive for the Borders to be properly connected to a modern UK-wide and Europe-wide transport infrastructure. Thank you

Diverted water main

Work started on Monday May 24th to lay a new water main along the Stow to Fountainhall minor road, replacing an existing main laid in  the railway formation between bridge Nos. 67 (crossing of the Gala Water at Galabank) and 68 (Station Road overbridge), a distance of about a mile. The works are scheduled to take ten weeks and like most of the utilities diversions which may or may not have been carried out since this phase was inaugurated by Transport Minister Stewart Stevenson in mid-March, there is no activity on the actual  trackbed, so it is not at all obvious that the work is in connection with the Borders Railway.

The first image shows the work on 31st May. Excavation of the trench for the diverted water main had reached a point a few hundred yards north of Stow station, seen here from the hillside on the south side of the Gala Water valley with the railway embankment in the middle distance and the A7 road beyond that (view looking to the north east).

Diverted Water Main

It is worth commenting that this is an expense which need not have fallen on the railway, as reinstatement was already on the agenda back in the late 1990s when East of Scotland Water replaced the local supply at Fountainhall with water pumped up the Gala Water valley from its Meigle facility at Galashiels. There was presumably some cost saving in utilising the railway formation rather than going along the road and in the absence of appropriate legislation to protect disused railway alignments, ESW was quite entitled to pursue whichever option suited it best. The writer was able to persuade ESW to lay the new main on one side of the formation rather than right down the middle but the single track envisaged at the time has now changed to double track in the Stow area making diversion of the main unavoidable.

Towards the end of the week commencing 24th May, excavation had only proceeded about 200 yards. The second image shows the work from the north side of the valley (from my front bedroom window actually) with the railway embankment in the middle distance. Bridge no. 68 and Stow station are just off to the left.

21 June 2010

Delivery of the Borders Railway moved a step closer today as Transport Scotland announced its intention to invite three organisations consisting of seven of Europe’s biggest construction and financial companies to tender for the contract.

The three organisations that have been invited to participate are:-

• BAM (BAM UK Ltd)
• IMCD (Sir Robert McAlpine Ltd, Iridium Concesiones de Infrastructuras SA, Carillion Construction Ltd)
• New Borders Railway (Fluor Limited, Miller Construction (UK) Ltd, Uberior Infrastructure Investments (Lloyds Banking)

The individual companies include those responsible for some of the biggest rail projects in Europe in recent times, including the High Speed links between Amsterdam and Belgium (Zuid) and Figureas to Perpignan in France, the East Coast Mainline Upgrade, the London Underground Connect Project and Manchester Metrolink.

This contract will be another boost for the construction industry as part of Scottish Government’s current infrastructure investment programme.

John Swinney, Cabinet Secretary for Finance & Sustainable Growth said:

“I am encouraged by the strong UK and European interest received from the construction and financial industry and look forward to a competitive dialogue process which will introduce real competition to the rail market, encourage innovation and drive best value for money.

“This milestone takes us another step closer to providing timetabled passenger train services to communities along the route for the first time in over 40 years. Helping to create further opportunities for Scotland to flourish, through increasing sustainable growth in South East Scotland and provide a safer, quicker and greener mode of transport are key aims of this Government.”

A Market Day held in January, attended by over 55 UK and European companies, resulted in a strong response with Transport Scotland receiving formal expressions of interest from five organisations.

The five organisations, comprising a total of 12 construction and financial companies, submitted pre-qualification questionnaires in March 2010. A rigorous and robust evaluation was undertaken to identify the three preferred organisations to be invited to participate in Competitive Dialogue, the next stage of procurement.

During the Competitive Dialogue stage, the three organisations will now enter into dialogue with Transport Scotland over the next year to discuss their proposals for delivering the railway and associated infrastructure. During this process, the three organisations will be reduced to two, who will then be invited to submit a final tender.

It is anticipated that the award of the contract for Borders Railway will be made in winter 2011 with main construction work also beginning at this time. The project is estimated for completion with train services running in 2014.

All the necessary land has been acquired to allow construction of the railway. Accelerated funding was made available last year to allow advanced works to be completed early to reduce the level of risk in the main works contract. The Utilities work which began in March 2010 ‘triggered’ the Waverley Railway (Scotland) Act 2006 states that once work has begun the railway must be finished in its entirety from Edinburgh to Tweedbank.

This may well indicate that passenger projections for the Borders Railway are likely to be significantly underestimated.