Cameron Bridge railway station

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Cameron Bridge
The new railway station at Cameron Bridge is open! (geograph 7788735).jpg
Cameron Bridge station platforms in June 2024
General information
Location Cameron Bridge, Fife
Scotland
Coordinates 56°11′23″N3°02′49″W / 56.189693°N 3.046855°W / 56.189693; -3.046855
Grid reference NO3517800215 (new)
NO347001 (old - razed)
Platforms2 (reopened)
Train operators ScotRail
Construction
AccessibleYes
Other information
StatusOpen
Station codeCBX
History
Original company Leven Railway
Pre-grouping North British Railway
Post-grouping LNER
Key dates
10 August 1854 (1854-08-10)Opened
6 October 1969Closed to passengers
1990s (1990s)Closed completely
2 June 2024Resited and reopened
Location

Cameron Bridge railway station serves the village of Cameron Bridge, Fife, Scotland. The station is on the Levenmouth rail link branch of the Fife Circle Line. It also serves Windygates and Methil.

Contents

The present station was opened on 2 June 2024 as part of the Levenmouth rail link, a £116 million project funded by the Scottish Government. [1] [2] The new station is situated to the east of where the original station stood, on the other side of the main A915 road, and has two platforms. [3]

History

Original station

The station was opened on 10 August 1854 by the Leven Railway. It was situated near Cameronbridge Distillery, for which there were many sidings, and to the east of a level crossing on the road to Kirkcaldy and Cupar. The Muiredge Branch to the south also served a few collieries and Muiredge Goods. The station closed to passengers on 6 October 1969 [4] but the distillery sidings operated until the 1990s. [5] The remains of the station were demolished in 2022 as part of works to reopen the line. [6]

New station

The site of the original station and distillery in July 2007 Cameron Bridge station and distillery - geograph.org.uk - 947900.jpg
The site of the original station and distillery in July 2007

In December 2020, the site for the new station was confirmed. [3] It was not possible to site a new station in the same location as the original due to the need to position it a minimum safe distance from Cameronbridge Distillery, under COMAH regulations. Instead, a greenfield site further east was chosen. [7]

New Cameron Bridge station under construction in June 2023 Cameron Bridge railway station, Leven Branch, Fife. Under construction.jpg
New Cameron Bridge station under construction in June 2023

Construction started in January 2023 [8] and finished in January 2024. Driver training then commenced and in March, it was announced the station was expected to reopen on 2 June. [9]

The station has two 196m-long platforms connected by lifts and a footbridge. Facilities at the station include 16 cycle spaces and a 125 space car park, with space for an extra 300 spaces in future if needed as the station serves as a railhead for the local area. [10]

A 140m footbridge over the River Leven is also to connect the station to Methilhill area of Methil in a separate active travel project. [10] However, this has now been delayed as the contractor for the bridge went into administration in April 2024 and whilst an interim solution is being sought, the bridge is not expected to be open until autumn 2024. [11]

Moffat & Williamson have been awarded the daytime contract by Fife Council to provide the bus link. Stagecoach East Scotland have diverted services to call at the station during the evening and on Sundays

Services

All services at Cameron Bridge are operated by ScotRail. The typical service on all days of the week is one train per hour in each direction between Leven and Edinburgh Waverley via Kirkcaldy. [12]

Preceding station National Rail logo.svg National Rail Following station
Kirkcaldy   ScotRail
  Leven
Historical railways
Thornton Junction
Line open, station closed
  Fife Coast Railway   Leven
Line and station reopened

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fife</span> Council area of Scotland

Fife is a council area, historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries with Perth and Kinross and Clackmannanshire. By custom it is widely held to have been one of the major Pictish kingdoms, known as Fib, and is still commonly known as the Kingdom of Fife within Scotland. A person from Fife is known as a Fifer. In older documents the county was very occasionally known by the anglicisation Fifeshire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Methil</span> Human settlement in Scotland

Methil is an eastern coastal town in Scotland. It was first recorded as "Methkil" in 1207, and belonged to the Bishop of St Andrews. Two Bronze Age cemeteries have been discovered which date the settlement as over 8,000 years old. Famous for its High Street that used to have the most pubs per mile in Scotland, it was part of its own barony in 1614 and also part of the former burgh of Buckhaven and Methil. This burgh existed between 1891 and 1975. It is situated within a continuous urban area described as Levenmouth.

Leven is a seaside town in Fife, set in the east Central Lowlands of Scotland. It lies on the coast of the Firth of Forth at the mouth of the River Leven, 8.1 miles (13.0 km) north-east of the town of Kirkcaldy and 6.4 miles (10.3 km) east of Glenrothes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fife Circle Line</span> Railway line in Eastern Scotland, UK

The Fife Circle Line is the local rail service north from Edinburgh. It links towns of south Fife and the coastal towns along the Firth of Forth before heading to Edinburgh. Operationally, the service is not strictly a circle route, but, rather, a point to point service that reverses at the Edinburgh end, and has a large bi-directional balloon loop at the Fife end.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Inverkeithing railway station</span> Railway station in Fife, Scotland

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Cardenden railway station is a railway station in Cardenden, Fife, Scotland. The station is managed by ScotRail and is on the Fife Circle Line, 27 miles (43 km) north of Edinburgh Waverley. It opened to traffic in 1848, on the Dunfermline Branch of the Edinburgh and Northern Railway.

Levenmouth is a conurbation comprising a network of settlements on the north side of the Firth of Forth, in Fife on the east coast of Scotland. It consists of three principal coastal towns; Leven, Buckhaven, and Methil, and a number of villages and hamlets inland. The industrial towns of Buckhaven and Methil lie on the west bank of the River Leven, and the resort town of Leven is on the east bank. The "Bawbee Bridge" links the two sides of the river. Historically, Buckhaven and Methil were joined together as one burgh, while Leven was separate. The area had an estimated population of 37,238 in 2006.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Levenmouth rail link</span> Rail line in Scotland

The Levenmouth rail link is a recently reopened 5 miles (8 km) branch line railway in Fife, Scotland. The link connects the town of Leven and other settlements in the Levenmouth conurbation with Thornton, and joins the Fife Circle Line at Thornton North Junction. The line was promoted by Fife Council and the South East Scotland Transport Partnership (SESTRAN). The plan was approved by the Scottish Government on 8 August 2019. The line was formally opened by the First Minister of Scotland, John Swinney, on 29 May 2024. Scheduled passenger services began on 2 June 2024.

Cameron Bridge is a village in the conurbation of Levenmouth in Fife, Scotland. It is near to the village of Windygates and 2 miles west of the town of Leven. A distillery was established in the 19th century by the Haig family, which is now part of Diageo. The distillery produces Scotch whisky.

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East Linton railway station is a railway station serving the village of East Linton, Scotland. The original station opened in 1846 and closed in 1964. A new station, on a different site, opened on 13 December 2023. It is on the East Coast Main Line, six miles (9.7 km) west of Dunbar.

The Fife Coast Railway was a railway line running round the southern and eastern part of the county of Fife, in Scotland. It was built in stages by four railway companies:

The Wemyss Estate Railway was a group of mineral and other railways in Fife, Scotland, mainly on the land of the Wemyss family. The lines were built to connect coal pits to harbours and the railway network, for the use of tenants of the Estate. The Wemyss and Buckhaven Railway was built at the expense of the Wemyss Estate and carried passengers; it was later sold to the North British Railway.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leven railway station (Fife)</span> Railway station in Scotland

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bawbee Bridge</span> Bridge

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References

  1. "Disused Fife rail line to be reopened". BBC News. 8 August 2019. Archived from the original on 8 August 2019. Retrieved 9 August 2019.
  2. "Levenmouth Rail Link | The railway has returned to Levenmouth". ScotRail. Retrieved 23 June 2024.
  3. 1 2 "Levenmouth Reconnected". Scotlands Railway. Archived from the original on 22 January 2021. Retrieved 20 December 2020.
  4. M E Quick, Railway Passenger Stations in England Scotland and Wales—A Chronology, The Railway and Canal Historical Society, 2002, p. 105
  5. "Cameron Bridge station and distillery". Geograph. Archived from the original on 5 April 2018. Retrieved 4 April 2018.
  6. "Platform removal clears way for double tracking at Cameron Bridge". Network Rail Media Centre. Retrieved 12 June 2024.
  7. DEM, David Shirres BSc CEng MIMechE (22 August 2022). "Reconnecting Levenmouth". Rail Engineer. Retrieved 12 June 2024.
  8. "Construction of new Cameron Bridge Station begins". Network Rail. 23 January 2023. Archived from the original on 23 January 2023. Retrieved 23 January 2023.
  9. Piper, Laura (27 March 2024). "Trains set to service Fife area for first time in more than five decades". STV News. Retrieved 29 March 2024.
  10. 1 2 David Shirres (19 December 2023). "Levenmouth Almost Reconnected". Rail Engineer. Retrieved 5 April 2024.
  11. Allan Crow (29 April 2024). "Leven Rail Link: major delay installing new bridge as contractor goes into administration". Fife Today. Retrieved 4 May 2024.
  12. "Train Times: Edinburgh to Fife, Perth and Dundee". ScotRail . Retrieved 5 June 2024.