The St Andrews Rail Link Campaign (StARLink Campaign) was established in 1989 with the aim of reconnecting Scottish town of St Andrews to the railway.
The historical St Andrews Railway, which had connected St Andrews to the mainline via Leuchars Junction was closed on 6 January 1969.
Unlike the earlier closure of the Anstruther & St Andrews Railway in 1965, [1] [2] the St Andrews Railway was not recommended for closure in the (1963) Beeching Report. [3] [4] [5] [6] The closure, ordered four years after Beeching's departure in 1965, was ordered by Richard Marsh, Minister for Transport in the 1964-1970 (Labour) government of Prime Minister Harold Wilson, and whilst some Beeching closures did take place after the departure of Beeching in 1965, the St Andrews closure was not an instance of such.
The original reinstatement plan espoused by StARLink was simply a reestablishment of the historical Leuchars - St Andrews line but since the publication in 2012 of a report by Tata Steel Rail Consultancy StARLink now advocates an entirely new 21st-century layout with a twin-cord high-speed rail link travelling west and southwards via Cupar and northwards via Leuchars. [7] StARLink has estimated that the railway could be reinstated for £76 million. [8] A 2008 survey by StARLink of St Andrews residents and commuters found that 78% of those respondents who did not use buses would use the railway instead; [9] the group had sent out 20,000 questionnaires in December 2007. [10]
This line has been identified by the Campaign for Better Transport as a priority 2 candidate for reopening. [11]
The Ulster Transport Authority (UTA) ran rail and bus transport in Northern Ireland that operated from 1948 until 1967.
The North British Railway was a British railway company, based in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was established in 1844, with the intention of linking with English railways at Berwick. The line opened in 1846, and from the outset the company followed a policy of expanding its geographical area, and competing with the Caledonian Railway in particular. In doing so it committed huge sums of money, and incurred shareholder disapproval that resulted in two chairmen leaving the company.
Longniddry railway station is located at the southeast corner of the coastal village of Longniddry, East Lothian, Scotland. The station is on the East Coast Main Line, 13+1⁄4 miles (21.3 km) east of Edinburgh Waverley, and is served by stopping passenger trains on the North Berwick Line.
Larbert railway station is a railway station serving Larbert near Falkirk, Scotland.
North Berwick railway station is a railway station serving the seaside town of North Berwick in East Lothian, Scotland. It is the terminus of the Edinburgh to North Berwick Line, 22+1⁄4 miles (35.8 km) east of Edinburgh Waverley.
Gleneagles railway station serves the town of Auchterarder in Perth and Kinross, Scotland.
The Stourbridge Town branch line is a 0.8-mile (1.3 km) railway branch line, in Stourbridge, West Midlands, England. It is the shortest railway line in Britain. It is widely believed to be the shortest line in Europe to host a daily service, although this is incorrect; it is notably beaten by the branch line to Friedrichshafen Hafen, in Germany.
Leuchars railway station serves the towns of Leuchars and St Andrews in Fife, Scotland. The station is the last northbound stop before Dundee.
The Edinburgh and Northern Railway was a railway company authorised in 1845 to connect Edinburgh to both Perth and Dundee. It relied on ferry crossings of the Firth of Forth and the Firth of Tay, but despite those disadvantages it proved extremely successful. It took over a short railway on the southern shore of the Forth giving a direct connection to Edinburgh, and it changed its name to the Edinburgh, Perth and Dundee Railway.
Anstruther railway station served the village of Anstruther, Fife, in Scotland. Served by the Leven and East of Fife Railway it was opened in 1863.
The Coleford, Monmouth, Usk & Pontypool Railway (CMU&PR) was a standard gauge railway of 16 miles (26 km) which ran from Monmouth to Little Mill, near Pontypool in Monmouthshire, Wales. It was intended to convey the mineral products of the Forest of Dean to the ironworks of South Wales, by connecting to the Newport, Abergavenny and Hereford Railway at Little Mill Junction. The NAHR made the onward connection over its Taff Vale Extension line. The CMU&PR intended to acquire the Monmouth Railway, actually a horse-operated plateway, and convert it to locomotive operation.
The Stafford–Shrewsbury line is a former railway line in England, which ran between Stafford in Staffordshire and Shrewsbury in Shropshire, via Newport and Wellington, from 1849 to 1966. The Shropshire Union Railways and Canal Company (SUR&CC) constructed and ran one of the few railways in England ever built by a canal company. The line served Newport and Wellington stations. The SUR&CC were solely responsible for the section from Stafford to Wellington; but the building and operation of the 10.5 mile (17 km)-long Shrewsbury-to-Wellington section was shared with the Shrewsbury and Birmingham Railway.
Carno is a closed railway station in Carno, on the Cambrian Line, that was part of the Newtown and Machynlleth Railway. The station was closed in 1965 as part of the Beeching Cuts though there are proposals to re-open it.
The Nantwich and Market Drayton Railway was a standard gauge railway line which began as a single line branch in the early 1860s and rapidly became part of the Great Western Railway's (GWR) double track Wellington to Nantwich Railway, which had through trains to Crewe. It carried through freight and local passenger traffic until its closure in the 1960s. Market Drayton was renowned for the manufacture of gingerbread, hence the line acquired the nickname the "Gingerbread Line".
The East Fife Central Railway was a mineral railway line in Fife, Scotland, that ran from near Leven to Lochty. It was built to develop extensive coal measures in the area. The line was completed by the North British Railway and it opened in 1898.
The St Andrews Railway was an independent railway company, founded in 1851 to build a railway branch line from the university town of St Andrews, in Fife, Scotland, to the nearby main line railway. It opened in 1852. When the Tay Rail Bridge opened in 1878 residential travel to Dundee was encouraged.
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:
Llandinam railway station was a station serving Llandinam, Powys, on the Llanidloes and Newtown Railway (L&NR) line. The L&NR was authorised in August 1853; construction began in October 1855 and the line was opened between those points for goods traffic only on 30 April 1859 – passengers were carried from 31 August 1859. Llandinam was one of three intermediate stations on the 13-mile line. The station was opened in 1859 by David Davies who was born in Llandinam and was a major contractor for building the line. In July 1864 the L&NR amalgamated with three other railways to create the Cambrian Railways, which in January 1922 amalgamated with the Great Western Railway which itself became part of British Railways in 1948.
The Wemyss and Buckhaven Railway was a railway company that built a line in the county of Fife in Scotland, connecting Buckhaven with the main line railway network at Thornton, and linking with collieries.
St Andrews railway station was the second station to be built in the town of St Andrews, Fife, Scotland. The station, which was in service from 1887 to 1969, was built by the St Andrews Railway and the Anstruther and St Andrews Railway.