Limbo for vital Far North Line railway upgrade ‘depressing’, say Highland rail campaigners amid ongoing lack of progress by Network Rail Scotland and governments
Stalled progress on a vital new passing loop which would dramatically improve train reliability on the Far North and Kyle lines has been criticised by rail campaigners.
Plans for a new passing loop at Delmore, west of Inverness, emerged last year, raising hopes that the long campaign for such an improvement might be nearing an end.
At present there is no way for trains to pass each other between Muir of Ord and Inverness, meaning that a single delayed train can lead to a domino effect that causes knock-on timetable disruption for it and other services.
Indeed, that very scenario played out last Thursday morning, when the late running 6.18am Wick to Inverness service - which was only 18 minutes behind schedule at Conon Bridge - was then forced to wait at Muir of Ord for a gap in traffic to proceed on to the Highland capital.
It did not leave the Muir of Ord platform until 11.21am - one hour and six minutes after it was scheduled to depart.
But despite these problems and long-running calls for a fix, almost two decades have now passed since the Friends of the Far North Line and business leaders first began calling for a passing loop between Beauly and Inverness to resolve this notorious bottleneck.
And with the project now seemingly stuck in limbo while it waits on budget approval, fed up campaigners have drawn attention to the stark contrast between the project's glacial progress and the swift creation of the line by the Victorians.
Writing in the Friends of the Far North Line's latest members magazine, Far North Express, the group's convener Ian Budd described the current situation as "a slightly depressing feeling of deja vu, since in most ways little has changed on the Far North Line since this time last year".
He continued: "It's now 19 years since the major temporary slowdown occurred on the line when 25 minutes was added to the journey times to combat late running and to meet new safety standards.
"That prompted the beginning of our campaign to build a loop on the erstwhile double track section of railway near Inverness in order to prevent slightly late southbound trains having to be held at Muir of Ord until a couple of northbound departures have cleared."
He added that the former presence of double-track on that section of line - the second track was ripped up by British Rail in the 1980s - means that there is already space alongside the line for a short passing loop to be installed between Inverness and Beauly, and that the land is already owned by the railway meaning the build should be "quite a minor project and a no-brainer".
He continued: "But that's not how railways work these days."
Drawing contrasts with the swift construction of the final stretch of the Far North Line in the 1870s, he added: "In 1874 the Sutherland & Caithness Railway reached Thurso and Wick with 67 route miles being completed in exactly three years.
"One-hundred-and-fifty years later it's taken 19 years so far to persuade the Scottish Government to build a few hundred metres of desperately needed track, and once agreed it'll probably take many months to be completed. At this moment there is still no news of progress.
"It's easy to imagine what Victorian railway builders would have made of the idea of spending several years and millions of pounds in drawing up enormous 'strategic reviews'."
Network Rail Scotland had no update on the Delmore Loop project when approached.
However, the Scottish Government transport minister Fiona Hyslop recently addressed the scheme in a response to a parliamentary question.
Highlands and Islands Labour MSP Rhoda Grand had asked to know when the loop would be installed.
Ms Hyslop gave no timeframe and stressed the difficult fiscal setting, but added that it “remains in consideration”.
She said: “The advantages for capacity and performance of a new rail loop in the Delmore area are recognised. However, the proposal for a passing loop at Delmore does not feature in the Scottish Government’s current investment programme.
“Given the extremely challenging financial climate, and following last year's UK Autumn Statement, we have had to take difficult decisions in setting the budget for 2024-25. This affects our ability to fund any projects which do not yet feature in the current investment programme.
“A loop at Delmore remains in consideration for future delivery alongside a number of other potentially valuable schemes.”
