Hon. President Revd. Alistair Roy BD

A discussion on the benefits and issues concerning major strategic upgrades for the Far North Line, including the Dornoch Rail Link.

Views on the Dornoch Rail Link

It is the view of the Dornoch Rail Link Action Group, and others who support the Link, that all should be done to ensure that the Far North Line provides a credible, relevant, competitive (with the A9), economically, socially and environmentally sustainable mode of transport for the people of Caithness and Sutherland. The reasons for this are given in a brief summary below.

We do not believe that the Far North Line is capable of being developed to its full potential in its current form, owing to its topography compared with the A9 road. Offsetting this impact, and maximising opportunities thereby, will require improvements to the rail link to Caithness and elsewhere.

Significantly improved rail transport has huge potential for the Far North. This is officially recognised for the following reasons, as detailed in the STAG 1 appraisal for the Dornoch Rail Link “Dornoch Rail Link and the Far North of Scotland, MVA Consultancy, Issue 1, January 2008”:

Improving journey times and connections: A proper rail service from Caithness to Inverness and beyond would achieve recognised Government objectives of improving journey times and accessibility by Far North residents to Inverness, a major employment centre, by public transport, enabling commuting to Inverness by 09.00;
Improving rail access and journey times to encourage freight transfer opportunities by modes other than road: A fully developed rail service and infrastructure would contribute to reducing transport costs for businesses in the Far North, e.g. for timber, supermarket traffic, seaport derived traffic and other traffic, thus encouraging major road to rail modal shift. This is important with regard to encouragement of business creation and inward investment, particularly for Caithness post-Dounreay;
Improving accessibility by improving public transport links between communities and modal integration: Improved rail transport will also greatly help in increasing accessibility/ integration and consequent investment potential in Caithness to offset the ongoing decommissioning of the Dounreay nuclear facility and its anticipated closure date in the 2020’s-30’s, which will result in the loss of over 3000 jobs and £80 million/ year income from Dounreay;
Improve public transport integration throughout the Highlands: Improving integration between ferry, bus and rail transport would encourage tourists to travel to Caithness, Sutherland and the Orkneys in greater numbers, increasing the total income and economic development generated from the tourist trade;

Improvements to infrastructure on the existing layout would cut journey times. Nevertheless, such improvements can only improve times by a maximum of 25-30 minutes, reducing Thurso-Inverness times to a minimum of 3 hours 15-20 minutes, still uncompetitive with the A9. The Dornoch Link can cut a further 45 minutes off these times. This, combined with other improvements, would enable a total journey time reduction of 1 hour 15 minutes, cutting Thurso - Inverness journey times to 2 hours 30 minutes. This would be critical to helping the Line achieve its full potential as described above, in ways not possible without the Link.

It is recognised that the Dornoch Link may cause the communities at the Lairg Loop and elsewhere in Central/ West Sutherland to have concerns about their railway services. Any decision to improve the Line with the Dornoch Link must take their concerns into cognizance and ensure that these communities derive benefits from the Link as well.

It is also recognised that the Dornoch Rail Link should not be considered in isolation, and should be undertaken as part of a more wide ranging upgrade as discussed below.

Views on other upgrades to the Inverness – Wick Line

We recognise that the Dornoch Rail Link would have to be undertaken as part of major upgrades of the existing Far North Line to realise the full benefits of a 2 hour 30 minute journey time from Caithness to Inverness. These are outlined in Section 6.1.3 of the Dornoch Rail Link study carried out for us by Corus Railway Infrastructure Services. Such upgrades would consist principally of engineered upgrades to the Line, its passing loops and level crossings to increase speed and safety of operation, thereby cutting another 25-30 minutes off the journey time.

It is important to maximise the utilisability of the Line and its services for freight and passengers. To this end, we would like to see:

Increases in capacity for extra passenger and freight trains, by re-introduction of passing loops at single track stations where practicable. Signalling upgrades are also critically necessary, as the RETB signalling is obsolete and needs replacing;
Increases in axle loading/ route availability limits for the line. This is necessary to increase the payload capability of any freight train and thus improve economics for rail freight on the Line. Level crossing upgrades for speed and safety improvements are needed also;
Re-opening of Halkirk station and upgrading it to enable use for passenger traffic from Caithness outlying areas as well as Halkirk village itself;
Construction of the Georgemas Chord, bypassing Georgemas Junction which could then be used as a freight handling terminal, and enabling more direct passenger services to Thurso and Wick;
Engineered upgrades for existing rolling stock on the Far North Line to improve reliability and availability. Introduction of appropriate rolling stock in the longer term;
A level playing field between road and rail investment and cost to users.

Summary
Any decisions taken with regard to the Far North Line will have an impact on the future of the Line and the Caithness/ Sutherland economy, thus affecting everyone in those areas irrespective of their use of the Line. It is therefore critically important that all the above upgrades, including the Dornoch Rail Link, are swiftly implemented on the Line to ensure carbon dioxide emissions reduction, accessibility increase, peripherality reduction and modal shift of freight from road to rail. It should be noted that the above objectives are nationally recognised at Government level.

Guide to the benefits of the Dornoch Rail Link for the Far North Line

The Tain - Dornoch – Golspie rail link is still recognised, by the 1999 Highland Council Structure Plan and elsewhere, that it would achieve a “considerable shortening of the journey time for rail passengers between Caithness/ South East Sutherland and Inverness”. It would lead to a better used and more efficient Thurso/Wick – Inverness line;
Operational time saving benefits for the Far North Line users have been confirmed by the Corus engineering study which has confirmed an average of 45 minutes’ time saving on the Link, with further reductions to 2 hours 30 minutes possible. This could be achieved by the Link, other infrastructure improvements, restoration of double tracks and passing loops, track and signalling upgrading, which would enable non-stop express running between Tain and Inverness, thereby cutting times to 2 hours 10 minutes. The “Invernet” Lairg/Tain – Inverness commuter service would offer stopping services for intermediate stations. A subsequent socio-economic modified STAG 1 study identified the Link as having the “greatest merit on the initial STAG 1 appraisal for meeting the widest range of the Government’s objectives”;
Dornoch town is a significant regional and population centre, and its reconnection to the Scotrail network (via the Link) would enable a 60 minute commuter service to and from Inverness, with additional usage coming from Dornoch’s tourist and golf related business, Golspie, Brora and Helmsdale;
The above benefits would greatly increase usage of the Far North Line by both locals and tourists, with 13,000 extra passenger journeys per year as defined by the Scott Wilson “Room for Growth” Report, with increase in tourism for the Far North, and reduction of transport related carbon emissions and road accident rates. The accompanying map shows potential catchment areas for improved rail services;
It should be noted that the Scottish Executive were willing to take account of the wider social inclusion, regional development and employment opportunities with regard to their contribution of £115 million to the £150 million cost of the Waverley link. These are applicable to the Far North with regard to the Dornoch Link;
Previous experience of even minimalist rail investment elsewhere in Scotland (and the rest of the U.K.) has resulted in upsurges of passenger rail travel which have greatly exceeded the initial demand projections. One good example is the new rail links in greater Glasgow, which now carry 40% more passengers than expected. There is every reason to believe that the Link would replicate this for Caithness, Orkney and Sutherland;
A Dornoch Link would also improve the competitive position of railfreight transport to and from the Far North, by greatly increasing capacity and offsetting transport costs.

Maps