Borders Railway link reopens to public after being closed for half a century

Britain's longest new domestic railway line to be built in over a century is operating again, after being closed for 46 years. 

 

The Borders Railway will operate a half-hourly service between Edinburgh and Tweedbank, a village in the Scottish Borders. The trains will run on weekdays only and the journey takes around an hour to complete. 

 

 

35 miles in length, it cost £294m to re-build, and the Scottish government hopes to boost local economies by bringing it back into use. It is estimated that in five years time, a million passengers will be regularly using the line. 

 

Formerly supporting the old Waverley service between the two locations, it was closed down in 1969 because of cuts. Since then, the Scottish Borders region has lacked access to the National Rail network. 

 

Keith Brown, Scotland's infrastructure secretary, said the country's railways were enjoying a period of success not seen since the original line was built in the Victorian era, largely mainly because of the Scottish government's “record levels of investment”.