A campaign to support
This is a campaign that people
in Dumfries and Galloway, especially Annandale and Eskdale should actively
support. The aspiration is for full restoration of the Waverley line to
Carlisle envisioning a project carried out in stages to include
''....Reconstruction of the railway from Longtown (near Carlisle) through
Newcastleton to Riccarton and Kielder, for
timber and military traffic, removing substantial numbers of lorries from
public roads serving the Kielder, Wauchope, Newcastleton and
Kershope forests......''
This is the vision that was
absent from the massive afforestation in the post war years. With a lack of joined-up thinking planners
were in love with the internal combustion engine, seeing roads, cars, heavy goods vehicles
through rose-tinted glasses. Railways
were abolished in favour of road transportation leading to todays insanity in which every day we see dozens
of 40 tonne lorries trundle through the streets of our towns, (eg on the A7
Selkirk and Langholm). Probably all of this load could be carried on one
train.
Transport
Scotland says of trunk roads, ''Due to their strategic importance it is general
practice that trunk roads should be kept free from obstruction to permit the
efficient movement of goods and vehicles...'' There is nothing ''efficient'' about this!
Most of
the goods and many of the people seeking to travel between Edinburgh and
Carlisle could do so by train if the line was reconstructed.
What I'm saying above also reflects what I previously said in my earlier blog ''The Story of The Mercat Cross''.
Quote
from Mercat Cross blog: ''September 2021 will be the 400th anniversary of the founding of the Burgh of Barony of Langholm. Before that we should be taking steps to regenerate our High Street. This must involve taking steps against heavy freight traffic which dominates the street undermining our civic wellbeing. The intimidating heavy lorries should be re-directed to motorway or rail, and speed limits in the High Street should be reduced to 20mph. Pavements must be widened with priority given to pedestrians. Footfall, the great dream of the shopkeepers, is done on foot, not in a car. Making the urban environment more pedestrian-friendly will mean giving more space over to people to walk about. It is pedestrians that go to shops and cafes, not cars. The plethora of ugly road signs disfiguring the townscape should be removed and car parking restricted not just for the sake of the ‘traffic flow’, but to enhance the experience of people on foot or cycle. All successful towns have an attractive central open public place where it is possible walk or sit in peace and where people can chat without the roar of traffic. We need in the middle of the town a relaxing place where it’s possible to meet and where community events can take place. A Heritage Trail is pointless without taking action to save our townscape heritage and ''place-making'' places worth being in. If we want to become a ‘’heritage town’’ attractive to visitors we could alter the vehicular access in and out of Parliament Square and create a large area of the Market Place where the Mercat cross and Malcolm Statue could be relocated to their original site.''
Unquote.
