Case Study – The Borders Railway
Author’s note: The Lewes to Uckfield Railway route is some 7 to 8 miles long. The Government and East Sussex County Council have dithered over the decades as to whether to support reopening the line. Meanwhile, in Scotland they have got on with the job of reopening not just 8 miles of track but over 4 times that! The new Borders Railway has been a great success. Hopefully, this should give encouragement to the Government and the County Council to get on with the job here in the South East of England.
The Borders Railway connects the city of Edinburgh with Galashiels and Tweedbank
A 35 mile length of railway line reopened in Scotland, including relaying the track in 2015. The Borders railway is the longest new domestic rail route to be built in the UK for over a century. It reconnects the Scottish Borders region to the national rail network. The railway follows most of the alignment of the northern part of the ‘Waverley Route’, a former double-track line in southern Scotland and northern England that ran between Edinburgh and Carlisle.
The Waverley line was controversially closed in 1969 as part of cuts to the rail network drawn up by Dr Beeching. A campaign to revive the line built up in the 1990s. The Scottish government decided to reopen the railway in 2006. Construction finally started in April 2013. 7 new stations and 42 new bridges were built over 2 years. The cost was £350m. It was opened by the Queen in September 2015. It was used by nearly 126,000 passengers in the first month.
It was initially thought that the Borders Railway would carry around 600,000 passengers a year, but by 2018/19 that figure had risen to 1,789,467. Such high demand led to Scotrail introducing more carriages and a more frequent service. It has been so successful that a £10 million feasibility study has now been commissioned to look at extending the line from its current terminus.
Costs
There is a good comparison with the Borders railway in Scotland, which was built between 2012 and 2015. It is about 30 miles long and cost about £350m, including all associated costs. Therefore, if you divide 30 into £350 m you get the 2015 cost on a per mile basis. About £11.67 m per mile. Then you must inflate that cost from 2015 to today. Total inflation in UK capital and construction costs from 2015 to 2026 is approximately 56.25%, as measured by the BCIS All-in Tender Price Index (reflected in the RICS CIL index rising from 256 in 2015 to 400 for 2026. Thus the present day cost would be £11.67 m x 1.56 you would have what the modern-day cost is of the line between Lewes and Uckfield. £18.20 m per mile. Say 136.5 mile for a single track line
The Border railway has three double-track sections placed strategically along the route to keep services running smoothly in both directions which would not be needed in Sussex. Also the Borders Railway has seven stations which again would not be needed. The Borders Railway required rebuilding of a number of bridges which is what would be required in the case here in Sussex.
This assumes no electrification. However, there may be some increasing cost for signalling and for level crossings if bridges are not built. At the Uckfield end there may be an significant extra cost to construct a bridge and associated works to avoid using a level crossing. The cost of this could run into quite a few million pounds.
References:
Institute of Civil Engineering