Re-opening of passenger line revitalises town

[rjhowie]

Back in the days of Dr Beechings rail cuts the line from Glasgow via Airdrie-Edinburgh was axed and lifted. It has recently been re-instated (and as I said at the time it made Glasgow-Edinburgh the only 2 cities in the with with 4 seperate service lines between them. Not 4 services on the same track.).

One of the series of small towns is Armadale which suffered a lot losing coal and heavy industry. Now the area around the re-opened station is to have 1,000 new homes, a community centre, school, big supermarket amongst other items. People also have a regualar train service to both Glasgow and Edinburgh so the railway has helped the regeneration. Indeed the service to Glasgow goes well beyond right out to Helensburgh further down the River Clyde.

 

[Euphod]

That's excellent news, rail shipping is up over the past three years in the US, it's good to know those small towns will thrive again.

 

[rjhowie]

Yes it is good news Euphod. As you know over here the vast majority of our railways are passenger rather than goods. Up here in the northern part of the kingdom we have had 4 passenger lines re-opened after being shut for 50 years and still another to open. Two of those lines have actually broken the target passenger numbers expected which is additional good news too.

 

[JCitron]

This has been happening up here in the northeastern New England as well. Smaller towns and cities revitalize as newer business spring up to serve freight crews and passengers. Haverhill, MA where I live now hosts the Downeaster as well as a number of MBTA commuter trains. There a now a handful of smaller business around the station ranging from a newspaper/convenience store, a Dunkin Donuts, a number of restaurants, and a cleaners. Haverhill was once a shoe manufacturing city that has lost all its industry, so having a few small businesses might not seem like much, but at least it's a start to revitalize the downtown strip. This similar micro-economic boom has happened in New Hampshire and Maine as well. Towns such as Wells Maine and Dover New Hampshire now have lots of businesses around the station area. Both of these cities are "school towns" with Phillips Exeter and UNH at Dover (Durham) respectively both served by the Downeaster.

What happened to the businesses before? Well the interstate highway system went in and a long with it went the business for the downtown areas. Instead of people shopping and eating in town center restaurants, or those little mom and pop stores along the local byways, they went to the gas station and restaurant chain at the highway interchange. In my area one road in particular, Route 110, used to be the main route to the beach up in Salisbury. There were once all kinds of gas stations, restaurants, ice cream stands, and even other businesses that people would stop at as they traveled to the shore. When I-495 was built to Amesbury, towns such as Merrimac, Methuen, and many others dried right up. Today when you travel from Lowell to Haverhill on Route 110, there are many remnants of old restaurants and businesses that are long gone because I-495 pulled the travelers away from them. Up through northeastern New Hampshire and Maine, I-95 opened up in the 1960s and early 1970s. This pulled travelers away from the towns and provided a bypass via I-495 and I-95 to points north all the way to the Canadian border.

So the same thing happened with the railroads. When they discontinue business in the smaller more rural areas, the businesses that thrive on travelers and freight interchange disappear, and then the whole region begins to suffer.

John

 

[rjhowie]

Hi John,

A great deal in what you say about losing freight and effecting the passenger side. Yet equally here the vast majority of our system here is the opposite to the USA where freight or what we would call "goods" is the king. Our system is therefor weighted to passenger operation although I do think it was a mistake shoving so much onto roads years ago. Although there is still goods trafic over the UK there is actually one rail company that has no freight running on it at all!

A short time back I commented that the influences are seen here on Trainz. The majority of US members tend to build freight routes as that is the main thing and here we lean heavily on doing passengers being the tradition. Both of course equally valid. I have often felt that when a town loses it's railway link somehow you feel it is out the plot a bit or is that just my love of trains saying that?!

Bobby

 

[rjhowie]

Noticed an item in a newspaper on Sunday that shows the steady increase in passengers is continuing. There is a concern to look at the railway situation here (Scotland). It is now estimated that in the nest few years rail travel in the Edinburgh region will increase by 118% and in the Glasgow area network by 40%.

 

[masontaylor]

Though it's actually neither of the Scottish central belt cities where passenger numbers have increased the most. Am just about to leave for a few day's work further south, but would refer you to the last post here, to save time and reduplication....

http://forums.auran.com/trainz/showthread.php?p=884417#post884417

 

[Nerazzurri]

I've been following this. All very interesting, your linked post too Mason.

The numbers which caught my eye are for Queen street station. I'm sure you're aware of the rises, so I'll just mention the earliest and latest figures taken from Wiki. 2002/3 - 2.03m; 2008/9 - 19.64m! The yearly numbers between those are always increases.

To my mind that's nothing short of phenominal. Especially in the face of rising fares. Having said that, I sometimes travel from Bridgeton to Hyndland, and I always think the return fare is great value (much cheaper than bus) - go figure!

 

[rjhowie]

I wasn't centralising on the central belt actually (!) but just showing how much rail is doing up here. Elsewhere in GB like in my regular haunt across the sea the NIR has had some truly uplifting increases. One line by over 100%. It goes to show that if you timetable correctly, provide a service, etc rail is till the thing here. Looking back there were lines that had to go in Beeching's time as one near where I lived at the time was hardly used but in other places there was no foresight as such was never though about in the 60's. Isn't it interesting where lines have been re-instated that they tend to do better than planned?

 

[JCitron]

Hi John,

A great deal in what you say about losing freight and effecting the passenger side. Yet equally here the vast majority of our system here is the opposite to the USA where freight or what we would call "goods" is the king. Our system is therefor weighted to passenger operation although I do think it was a mistake shoving so much onto roads years ago. Although there is still goods trafic over the UK there is actually one rail company that has no freight running on it at all!

A short time back I commented that the influences are seen here on Trainz. The majority of US members tend to build freight routes as that is the main thing and here we lean heavily on doing passengers being the tradition. Both of course equally valid. I have often felt that when a town loses it's railway link somehow you feel it is out the plot a bit or is that just my love of trains saying that?!

Bobby

Hi Bobby,

I tend to model the opposite. Up here in New England, the freight has just about dried up with all the industry that left. What we've seen has been an increase in commuter travelers and some (a few) long distance passenger trains. The towns that these trains service have seen the increase in business.

John

 

[rjhowie]

Hooray John!

Anything that brings more passenger sides to the scene across the pond is great. Ironically the same rail divide is obvious in much of our model railways although they also include freight but most boxed train sets tend to be passenger. That comment is due to years ago reading occasionally a US Model Rail mag available here.

A while back I met some Americans on holiday and had reached Glasgow and we had a chat. They were unused to a national passenger network as we still have and found it a great way to get about.

 

[wholbr]

Hi RJ, John andeverybody.

I would 100% agree with the sentiments voiced in this thread as recently I have been spending much time in mid-Cornwall which is very much devoid of any rail network or even a major trunk road.

The area aroundCallington, Tavistock etc is very much a deprived area where real poverty can be seen especially in the current economic climate. The lack of transport infrastructure means that very little commerce or industry is willing to invest in the area. The foregoing means poor wages and high cost for those who live there.

Compare that with central Gloucestershire which has a railway infrastructure which is used by thousands of commuters per day accessing jobs in Bristol,Gloucester or Cheltenham. This brings good wages and therefore retail commerce etc into the area. The upgrading of the Bristol to London mainline by 2015 has meant that there will be also upgrades to the local Gloucestershire branch lines such as Kemble, Yate etc. Passenger numbers are already increasing by over 11% per year making the London mainline now the most overcrowded route in the UK (I very much know that from regular personal experience).

The upgrading will mean that the original Brunel part of the station at Temple Meads Bristol at present a rather rundown car park will once again be brought back into use as terminal platforms restored to their original glory as designed by that great engineer. What we need to see now is the investment in these sorts of projects extended to the more remote parts of Britain so that all can benefit and share on an equal basis.

If it cannot be done through government investment then perhaps it can be done by private investment but either way it has to be done if only for the future stability of the entire UK.

Bill

 

[rjhowie]

So right there Bill. I can think of towns that lost their rail service way back and today seem forlorn as if a postcript on the map as an almost backwater in some places! I am no great fan of the Holyrood amateur set-up but we have had lines re-opened and still one in the pipeline so credit where cred is due! It is sad that those rural areas such as mentioned have become as they are. With the continued rise if passengers there has to be some idea of expansion. If we can re-open 4 lines and that one still to be done, England and Wales - and N. Ireland are unfortunately behind. And like the southwest part of England raised the reamaining Scots prospective one is a rural one of some 30 miles!