Liz Smith, Scottish Conservative MSP for Mid Scotland & Fife has written to SNP Transport Minister Keith Brown MSP to for a review to be undertaken regarding the reopening of Newburgh Station. Liz Smith, Scottish Conservative MSP for Mid Scotland & Fife said: “Scottish Conservatives have supported the reopening of Newburgh Station over a number of years. However, I am sorry to say that progress on this issue has been frustrated by the lack of vision shown by the SNP Scottish Government and in particular their transport agency Transport Scotland. “The campaign to reopen Newburgh Station has been a long and complex campaign. Most recently the South East of Scotland Transport Partnership (SEStran) recommended in 2010 that the reopening of Newburgh Station be added to Scotland's Strategic Transport Projects. However, when deciding and drawing up the list of projects, Transport Scotland formally objected to the proposal for a station at Newburgh on the basis that in considering proposals for reopening or providing new stations, Ministers must balance the desire to attract new users against the impact of network capacity. “The SNP Scottish Government did not, therefore, take forward the reopening of Newburgh Station. At that time the point was made that the argument against reopening Newburgh Station was bizarre as, in this individual case, the line which Newburgh Station would use already has additional capacity available and the reopening would in fact help to attract new users. The proposal sadly was not included in the Scottish Transport Appraisal Guidance (STAG) for Railway Stations. “SEStran has suggested that the reopening of the Newburgh Station could be included as part of the Highland Line and the Fife Network Projects. Extensive work has already been carried out to assess the feasibility of a halt being added to the line at Newburgh and the current level of passenger trains which use the line, I believe it would not impact on the strategic objective to reduce journey times between Inverness and the Central Belt.
“It is clear that local community support for the reopening of Newburgh Station is high with the results of the Sustainable Newburgh area-wide survey in early 2011 showing that improving local public transport services and infrastructure and support to re-open Newburgh rail station gaining the support of 3 out of 4 respondents. “I have been hugely impressed by the local support and I will continue to campaign to see the reopening of the Newburgh Station. I will raise the issue again with the Transport Minister and write to both Perth & Kinross and Fife Councils to ask what steps they are taking to try to take forward the proposal. “There is growing support for the reopening of Newburgh Station and I hope we can see the proposal get back on track in 2014.” ENDS