Sunday 9th June 2024
Beginning this series of daily blogs featuring highlights of last week’s enjoyable wander around the country using a complimentary First Class All Line Rail Rover (thanks to a year’s worth of Delay Repay) is a post about the newly restored railway line to Leven which opened for business exactly a week ago today.
The £116 million project includes an intermediate station at Cameron Bridge as well as reinstating the terminus at Leven bringing a welcome rail link between Edinburgh and this part of Fife not seen since the original line closed in 1969.
The new stations are not in the same locations as those closed in 1969, as highlighted in Geoff Marshall’s engaging video on YouTube featuring his visit to the line just before it opened with construction nearing completion, which is well worth a watch.
The restored line branches off the main line north of Kirkcaldy, at Thornton North Junction, between Edinburgh and Dundee.
Due to purdah and the upcoming General Election on 4th July, the line was officially opened with the usual plaque unveiling by Scotland’s First Minister, John Sweeney, on Wednesday 29th May (the day before the dissolution of the UK Parliament on 30th May), but suffice to say the actual first operational day, last Sunday, was marked by the usual band of young train enthusiasts having a wonderful time filming each other filming each other alongside many curious locals pleased to see trains back in their town.
It’s been an impressive time frame to get the line constructed having only been in active planning and development since August 2019, although volunteers at the Levenmouth Rail Campaign have been banging the rail restoration drum for many years before that.
It’s hoped the restored rail link can do for Fife what the Tweedbank line reopening has done for the Borders and Okehampton has done in Devon, where expectations for passenger numbers have been handsomely exceeded and both re-openings regarded as a success.
The new timetable includes an hourly service between Leven, Cameron Bridge and Edinburgh between 05:37 and 23:18 with the Sunday timetable starting later at 08:30. The last journey back from Edinburgh on weekdays and Saturdays is as late as 23:05 arriving in Leven at 00:10. Journey time to Edinburgh is just over an hour.
In the absence of rail services to the eastern part of Fife, Stagecoach has enjoyed the monopoly of long distance transport, in particular its hourly route X58 between St Andrews, Leven, Kirkcaldy and Edinburgh taking one hour and 48 minutes from Leven to Edinburgh.
Kirkcaldy is 30 minutes from Leven on the bus compared to the train taking 18 minutes.
On my journeys to Leven last Tuesday morning over 20 passengers travelled to Leven on the 13:10 arrival with five alighting before that at Cameron Bridge and another 20 or so boarded the 13:19 departure back from Leven.
I decided to try out the bus link between Leven and Cameron Bridge in the form of the hourly Moffat Williamson route M4 between Buckhaven and Pitcairn. This departs from Leven bus station (a stone’s throw from the railway station)…
… and after a twisty route through residential streets in north west Leven calls into the new Cameron Bridge station…
… with an arrival at 14 minutes past the hour, handy for the train to Edinburgh at 14:22 where five boarded with me.
However the age old conundrum of getting connections between buses and trains to work if both are hourly frequencies means it might work in one direction but not in the other so it’s good to see an effort has been made, albeit it may be a coincidence.
The stations at Leven and Cameron Bridge unsurprisingly offer fairly basic facilities. Ironically the latter probably cost more than the former with its curved platforms…
…footbridge and lifts…
… and a rather nice covering for cycle provision, a few seats and the ticket machine…
… as well as just the one shelter on the Edinburgh bound platform and a smattering of seats.
It was noticeable how the car park at Cameron Bridge only had a few cars…
… and work was continuing on the surrounding area…
… whereas at Leven, the car park was already being well used.
Also, in contrast, Leven has a very long straight island platform (capable of taking charter trains)…
… with two waiting shelters …
… with a rather basic perch type bench….
… and a few sets of seats …
… as well as a more substantial building which looked like it houses staff rest facilities…
… with the ticket machine and a few seats under cover.
There’s a surprsingly small provision for cyclists…
… and the inevitable boxes housing equipment of one kind or another all along the platform.
It’s a rather nice setting alongside the River Leven and indeed much of the five-and-a-half mile line and ten minute journey between Thornton North Junction and Leven follows the course of the river.
The guard on the Class 170 train I travelled out to Leven on (very comfortable it was too) was telling me he did the first journey at 05:39 earlier that morning on Tuesday and three passengers were already using it and he’d heard considerably more used the next journey at 06:17. I’m sure numbers will grow over the coming months making the £116 million investment worthwhile.
I’m surprised the bill wasn’t higher as Cameron Bridge must have been in excess of £20 million and probably about the same for Leven as well as all the work needed to restore the track bed.
And very sensibly, the opportunity has been taken to install foundations ready for when the line is electrified as part of aspirations to electrify the whole Fife Circle.
There are also thoughts of running trains to Leven via Dunfermline (on the Fife circular line) in the future but for now it’s an hourly service … and the X58 of course.
Roger French
Temporary enhanced blogging timetable: 06:00 Daily.
Comments on today’s blog are welcome but please keep them relevant to the blog topic, avoid personal insults and add your name (or an identifier). Thank you.
BusAndTrainUser 
By today’s standards, £116 million seems remarkably good value for five miles of double-track railway, including two stations and associated infrastructure.
The new line certainly seems to be a sensible reopening scheme, unlike a number of recent expensive station reopenings with dubious growth potential.
I’m sure passenger numbers will exceed expectations.
Carllo
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Comparing the costs to recent station reopenings, the Leven line seems very good value. Is this due to the higher costs of working on a live railway, or lack of efficient planning and delivery elsewhere? Probably a bit of both!
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Perhaps you’ve been able to fund the All Line Rover through Delay Repay because you’ve been claiming from Trans Pennine Express.
I recently claimed for the return half of a Liverpool-Lancaster journey when the 0812 TPE from Lime Street was cancelled. A combination of Northern trains got me back to Lancaster 50 minutes later, which was what I claimed for. TPE however refunded 100% of the return fare because “your delay was over 120 minutes”!
I assume that despite my having an Anytime ticket they paid on the basis that I had waited in Liverpool for the next TPE train at 1612!
The journey was also notable for having to pass through border control and show “photo ID” when alighting from the ferry at Birkenhead. It was a good job I took my bus pass as I assumed a passport wasn’t necessary to visit Belfast.
(I wonder if the DUP knows what’s going on?!)
Jim Davies
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From John Pinfold, Cheltenham: Undoubtedly a “good news” story (thank you Roger) but I remain saddened by the bland and uninviting nature of most new stations. Given the huge cost of these projects and how we value the appearance of a traditional GWR or West Highland Line stations, could Network Rail perhaps afford to introduce a little style/regional identity to help draw in potential passengers?
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Gareth Dennis on his Youtube channel was saying that there is official guidance out there to make station design more interesting but that so far it’s largely been ignored. My biggest bug bear is that so many of these new stations seemed to be designed for drivers first not pedestrians who have to walk through large and unwelcoming car parks to get to the station.
Chris
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Another fantastic blog post! Lovely new line which I was lucky enough to visit on the first day of public service. I went on holiday to the East Neuk of Fife every year as a child and used to always buy the St Andrews Citizen and the East Fife Mail when I was there to eagerly read up on any news on the campaigns to reopen Leuchars-St Andrews and Leven-Thornton Junction! Great to see this finally happen after so many false starts.
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Well done to Scotland for opening the Leven line in just 5 years.
A local line near me, (Burton -Coalville – Leicester line) is apparently “up there” in the rail reopening’s list but ill bet it’ll still be no further forward come 2030 and will remain a pipe dream !!
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Has say the cost of the car park for the station/s been put to the highways budget rather than the railways funding ?
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I wonder if there is any talk of reconstructing Thornton Junction station. Journeys from Leven to Perth or Dundee at present involve changing at Kirkcaldy, with a 20 minute time penalty: Google Maps suggest a bus from Leven to Markinch station, or – for Dundee – hourly bus 46 all the way; it takes just under an hour – really good for a standard all-stops bus (car is 45 mins).
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With Edinburghs hotels recently overwhelmed with “Swifties”, Wrestling fans and “Bucket listers” a day trip to sample the delights of Leven’s with my All Line Rail Rover it had to be!
Going via Glasgow, Scotrail delivered the reliable service I expect on a gloriously sunny day whisking me from Quuen Street to Haymarket on time for a ten minute connection onto the Leven train.
Once aboard the new service Scotrail staff welcomed passengers diligently checking their tickets. Two ladies opposite me were compassionately dealt with after struggling to find their old fashioned cardboard tickets, whose days are likely to be numbered if one believes the political aspirations of at least one party vying for your vote in the General Election.
I took the opportunity to look round Leven but returned by rail. Recent branch line forays in England have taken advantage of the excellent £2 bus fare to reach another rail head while also exploring the local area.
With a few hours to spare I took the opportunity to sample Lothian Buses contactless for the first time that worked with lightening speed, having been advised it was £4.80 instead of £5 for a paper day ticket and I didn’t need to ask again.
Lothians buses remain immaculate as ever. Edinburgh however has like Brighton become another city where every bus route was always (24/7 365 if u r generation Z) advertised on every bus stop flag have been insidiously disappearing, becoming another barrier to travel by bus for unfamiliar visitors.
John Nicholas
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