Scott Prentice, ScotRail Head of Business Development, spoke to the East Lothian Community Rail Partnership at our AGM on possible rail improvements to East Lothian trains over the next few years.
The current position regarding over-crowding, unreliable ticket machines, parking, and having to queue up to exit Waverley were well understood.
Under the Scotland Route Study – to which ELCRP contributed – and which relates to Control Period 6 (April 2019 – March 2024) the situation in East Lothian has been highlighted as the most important area in Scotland for future action due to the lack of available train paths on the double track East Coast mainline, and until these are provided only marginal capacity increases can be put into the North Berwick and Dunbar services. It is proposed that the track will be quadrupled between immediately East of Wallyford to East of Drem, meaning that all local trains will leave the main line immediately leaving Wallyford and travel on the ‘local’ lines with North Berwick trains not re-joining the main line. This will enable a substantial increase in service provision to half hourly from Edinburgh to Drem, with alternate hourly trains going to North Berwick and Dunbar, with additional peak hour services.
A new station is proposed at Blindwells. No decisions have yet been taken regarding the extensive engineering works required in respect of Prestonpans, Longniddry and Drem stations which clearly cannot exist in their present form in light of the four track proposal (and hence no finance proposal is in place). There is a possibility that Prestonpans station will be moved East nearer Blindwells and a joint station established. Harry Barker, in answer to a question from the floor regarding the Prestonpans murals indicated that the CRP would, in the event that Prestonpans station was moved/demolished, try to have the murals re-instated in any new station. Class 385 six car trains (2 x three car units providing an additional 130 seats per train) would be working all peak hour services by Spring 2019, with introduction in the timetable commencing in December 2018 and as new trains are delivered increased gradually. The Dunbar train will stop at East Linton providing an hourly service.
(Trans Pennine Express will be commencing an hourly service from Newcastle to Edinburgh – actually from Liverpool – Manchester – Leeds – York – Newcastle – Edinburgh in December 2019 but no decision has been taken regarding stopping points North of Newcastle.)
Charts produced by Scott Prentice show that even with the introduction of six car trains, the line would again be at full capacity by 2024 and passenger figures for the current year show that due to there being no room on peak hour trains, or at car parks, that the increase in passengers seen in past years has now plateaued. Plans for a further increase in capacity to the mid-2040s are on the drawing board.
Plans are in place to increase car parking at both Longniddry and Drem on railway land but no timescale was available for this to be completed.
Other points mentioned were that a new maintenance depot for electric units was due to come into operation in October 2017 and this ought to result in fewer cancellations, which amount to 1.6% of journeys, being double the ScotRail average.
A number of questions were asked during and following the presentation principally concerning the handling of what is envisaged to be substantial additional patronage due to new housing, and whether the current proposals go far enough.
The unreliability of ticket issuing machines at all unmanned East Lothian stations is being addressed with new software and a permanent presence of engineers from Germany. It is proposed to fully gate Waverley for both Borders and East Lothian services and it is recognised that better ticket issuing facilities are required, and in particular the use of SmartCards which have also got their teething difficulties to be sorted out. Main line East Coast services will, once Waverley has been rebuilt in about a year, leave from the bay platforms at the East end of Waverley – in other words, where many of the current North Berwick, Dunbar and Borders services depart. The Virgin first class lounge is adjacent to these platforms. The East Lothian and Borders services will therefore have to be relocated to other platforms.
