Please support a new Dumfries to Stranraer and Kirkcudbright Rail Link

Project update 06-09-2025

In 1983, the then Railway Development Society (RDS) produced a booklet called 'Bring Back the Trains' The Case for Reopenings. Page 29 cites Galloway Link states "In the teeth of fierce local opposition, the direct line from Dumfries to Challock Junction via Castle Douglas and Newton Stewart in south west Scotland was closed in 1965."

42 years later (letters were sent in support of reopening over that time) BRTA also added its voice to this missing strategic rail link being considered, studied and worked up towards delivery for rebuild/new build. Others are raising their voices for it too locally as well.

Despite all this, like many old lines, the original has been compromised, but whereas some say this means a nice idea but impracticable, widening and upgrading the monopoly the A75 has is justified.

BRTA welcomes the attached report from Mr Scott Borthwick which is timely and may be a last chance to look again at this golden opportunity to restore the rail link with direct running to/from Stranraer, Kirkcudbright and Cairnryan for example.

Electrification of Carlisle-Dumfries-Glasgow should also be looked at for more passenger and freight by rail usage and upgrade this former main line to more rlief of M6 and West Coast Main Line as well.

BRTA hopes to hold a possible public meeting in Dumfries and possibly elsewhere to raise support and would ask support for the idea, the principle and practically to deny and tailor future planning permissions to ensure there can be a viable rail corridor and rail alternative to endless roads, congestion, and pollution locked-in.

Please read the report and add your voice to this strategic Scottish win, win project. Thank you. For free copies of the pdf report, email ceo@brtarail.com - give it a read and join BRTA in support!

https://brtarail.com/dumfries-to-stranraer/

BRTA DuMfries Scotland Forum

Saturday 9 August 2025 1pm lunch 2-4pm business
Venue: Robert the Bruce, 81-83 Buccleuch Street, Dumfries DG1 1DJ Venue Website: www.jdwetherspoon.com/pubs/robert-the-bruce-dumfries Phone: 01387-270320
BRTA Main Forum Convenor: Simon Barber:
Email address: admin@brtarail.com
Phone (landline): 020-8940-4399
Phone (mobile): 07522-374740
 
Agenda
1.     Appointment of a Chairperson for the meeting (not Simon):
2.     Appointment of a note taker for the meeting
3.     Dumfries-Stranraer and Kirkcudbright rail rebuild/new-build why?
a.     Regeneration
b.     Modal Choice
c.      Kirkcudbright has a Deep Sea Portal, could negotiations with the Royal Navy inform more freight by rail?
d.     Capturing road vehicles traffic off the A75
e.     Sustainable footfall and spend along the rail corridor, increased visitorship by rail and incomes derived from it.
f.       A direct curve west to north at the Stranraer end for access to the Ayrshire Coast Railway and vice versa, making a loop out of Glasgow and Edinburgh. Discuss.
4.   These benefits and engineering a rail rebuild needs studying yes/no?
5.   Join BRTA, become an Area Rep to recruit new members and inform a team for reopenings across Scotland with Dumfries-Stranraer/Kirkcudbright et al being our top priority?
6.   Route protection needed, route audit and list compilation of blockages and challenges.
7.   Make appeal to the Scottish Parliament, Local Authorities, and the Public et al.
8.   Any Other Business
9.   Day, Date, Time, and Place of next meeting (2026) – sort now, low-cost hall/venue?
Note: BRTA works on the basis of “think not what BRTA can do for you, but what you can do for BRTA” – so make reliable offers if willing to help and serve.

Every member gets a newsletter and can be on our free email loop: ceo@brtarail.com

People have mixed memories of the old days of old railways and associated with the steam age. However, there is a growing awareness that for good social, economic, environmental and moral reasons, we need modal choices brought back to enable inwards footfall and spend and investment and outwards modal choice, mobility and cost savings to access employment, travel more by rail and cut congestion, emissions and land take of more and wider roads.

I attach our agenda for a forum in Dumfries. All are welcome. We call on the Scottish Parliament to consider our call for a rebuild of this corridor's railway to a modern design standard.  It would be a boost to local economies; it would serve and regenerate places which need new life-lines for social and economic growth on a sustainable footing. It needs a study, it needs route protection, salvaging and/or select pieces of new builds with Parkway Stations to optimise new markets and older ones to fill trains including passenger workings and freight by rail, off local roads.

Scotland has blazed a trail of local rail reopenings in past decades and we very much hope St Andrews and finishing off the Borders Railway to Carlisle will also be top priorities and call out the English side for not more readily seeing the potential for economic growth.

BRTA hopes a new west-north direct curve at the Stranraer end will inform x2-way traffic on the rail corridor off the Ayrshire Coast and both will feed each other.

Indeed, it could be that if the Kirkcudbright line is rebuilt, some freight sharing deep sea portal access with the Royal Navy could be negotiated and bring freight into England from Scotland and vice versa for export to the Atlantic and Ireland. Cairnryan needs physical rail linkage as well.

This is a great opportunity, but given the push of development, unless the corridor is given a priority status, it could be lost to encroachments and other uses. Recovery is essential and lands for deviations where necessary. Rail keeps the wheels turning and can beat hands-down end-to-end timings and reduce maintenance and congestion delays on the A75. Please study it and get a progressive planning policy to nurture the railway and let the train take the strain for a rail desert that is south-west Scotland. It needs the benefits the railway can bring and in turn it will offer more for the rest of Scotland.