Edinburgh Airport Rail Link

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article or section needs to be updated. Please update the article to reflect recent events / newly available information, and remove this template when finished.

Edinburgh Airport Rail Link
Legend From Glasgow Winchburgh Junction Winchburgh Tunnel From Fife Circle Forth Bridge Dalmeny Kirkliston Jcn./Dalmeny Jcn. Airport Central Jcn./Airport North Jcn. Tunnel under runway Edinburgh Airport Ingliston Jcn./Gogar Jcn. Roddinglaw Junction South Gyle Edinburgh Park Haymarket West Junction To Edinburgh

Edinburgh Airport railway station was part of the Edinburgh Airport Rail Link (EARL), an abandoned proposal to build a rail link to Edinburgh Airport, Scotland. The EARL project received Royal Assent on 19 April 2007.^[1] It was cancelled in September 2007, on grounds of cost.

The airport station was planned to open in 2011 and would have been located beneath the terminal building. A tunnel was to have been constructed to take trains underneath the main runway.^[2] The Edinburgh Airport Rail Link would have allowed direct rail travel to and from the airport from Scotland’s main towns and cities. New, faster trains would have been expected to minimise any extra journey time created by the additional stop.

Contents 1 Proposed services 2 Cancellation 3 See also 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Proposed services

Though the exact timetable had not been finalised, the following service pattern was expected to have been implemented:

• Edinburgh-Glasgow - 2 trains per hour
• Edinburgh-Dunblane - 2 trains per hour
• Fife Circle - 2 trains per hour
• Edinburgh-Aberdeen - 1 train per hour
• Edinburgh-Perth & Inverness - 1 train per hour

It was anticipated that services would have been provided by First ScotRail, GNER and Virgin Trains.

[edit] Cancellation

The EARL project was cancelled in September 2007 by the Scottish Government in favour of a cheaper proposal, based on an interchange to the planned Edinburgh tram service at a new railway station at Gogar (see the map of the proposed airport tram route).^[3]

While the former Labour and Liberal Democrat coalition and the Scottish Conservatives were in favour of the link, the newly elected SNP minority government decided to cancel the project. Following a vote in the Scottish Parliament on 27 June 2007, it had been agreed to retain the Edinburgh tram project effectively at the cost of abandoning the airport rail link.^[4] John Swinney MSP, the Cabinet Secretary for Finance in the Scottish Government, warned that the full underground EARL project would probably be scrapped in favour of the electrification of the Glasgow-Edinburgh Main Line.

The project was criticised for its high costs.

A cheaper surface alternative, such as an airport station on the existing Edinburgh to Aberdeen Line, may yet be built. ^[5]

[edit] See also

• Transport in Edinburgh
• Edinburgh Tram Network
• Edinburgh Airport

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Edinburgh Airport Rail Link Project
• "Edinburgh Transport Plans", The Scotsman. Retrieved on 2007-10-02. 

v • d • e Railway lines in Scotland InterCity lines: East Coast • West Coast Overnight Services: Caledonian Sleeper Main lines: Ayrshire Coast • Glasgow-Edinburgh (via Carstairs) • Glasgow-Edinburgh (via Falkirk) • Edinburgh-Aberdeen • Glasgow South Western • Highland Glasgow Commuter Lines: █ Argyle • █ Ayrshire Coast • █ Cathcart Circle • █ Croy (and Alloa) • █ Cumbernauld (and Falkirk) • █ Inverclyde • █ Maryhill • █ Motherwell-Cumbernauld • █ North Clyde • █ Paisley Canal • █ Shotts • █ South Western • █ Whifflet Edinburgh Commuter Lines: █ Bathgate • █ Crossrail • █ Dunblane • █ Fife Circle • █ North Berwick • █ Shotts Rural Lines: Aberdeen-Inverness • Far North • Kyle of Lochalsh • Tay Coast • West Highland Future Lines: Aberdeen Crossrail • Airdrie to Bathgate • Borders Rail Link • Crossrail Glasgow • Glasgow Airport Rail Link Completed Projects: Stirling-Alloa-Kincardine Rail Link