Fife Circle Line

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Fife Circle Line
standard gauge
Route map

The Fife Circle Line is the local rail service north from Edinburgh. It links towns of south Fife and the coastal towns along the Firth of Forth before heading to Edinburgh.[1] Operationally, the service is not strictly a circle route, but, rather, a point to point service that reverses at the Edinburgh end, and has a large bi-directional balloon loop at the Fife end.

Service

The service includes the Edinburgh-Dunfermline stretch of the East Coast Main Line, which includes the world-famous Forth Bridge. On the Fife side, while this main line hugs the coast, the circle is formed by a line from Inverkeithing that loops back round to Kirkcaldy by an inland route via Cowdenbeath through the old Fife coalfield. Narrowly speaking, just this line could be called the Fife Circle.

The current service is actually a combination of two previously separate local routes -

Edinburgh to Kirkcaldy and Edinburgh to Cowdenbeath & Cardenden. During the 1970s and 80s British Rail only ran a regular daytime service on the Dunfermline line as far as Cowdenbeath; Lochgelly
& Cardenden were only served during the weekday business peaks (as can be seen from Table 242 of the UK All Line timetable of that era), whilst the remainder of the route to Thornton Junction was freight-only (having been closed to passengers in 1969). All local stopping trains on the coast line meanwhile terminated at Kirkcaldy.

On 15 May 1989,

Edinburgh Gateway, and was opened in December 2016 to provide connections by tram to the nearby Edinburgh Airport.[4]

There is a goods line connection from

Longannet Power Station were rerouted by that line so that the bridge's maximum signalling capacity for trains can be used to increase the local passenger service; Longannet Power Station closed in 2017 and all coal train movements ceased although the site is now being redeveloped by Talgo to build new trains in the UK. The line between Alloa
and Dunfermline is not currently signalled to passenger carrying standards. The Fife Circle is a priority for present investment in new rolling stock. Its morning peak services can be notoriously overcrowded.

Service patterns

All services are run by ScotRail.[6]

Northbound

  • 1tph Edinburgh to Cowdenbeath via Dunfermline City
  • 1tph Edinburgh to Glenrothes with Thornton via Cowdenbeath (continues back to Edinburgh via the coast)
  • 2tph Edinburgh to Glenrothes with Thornton via Kirkcaldy (one continues back to Edinburgh via Dunfermline City, the other terminates at Glenrothes)

Southbound

  • 1tph Cowdenbeath to Edinburgh
  • 1tph Glenrothes with Thornton to Edinburgh via Dunfermline City (from Edinburgh via the coast)
  • 2tph Glenrothes with Thornton to Edinburgh via Kirkcaldy (one through from Edinburgh via Cowdenbeath)

In the evening, there are hourly services to Glenrothes via Cowdenbeath and to Kirkcaldy only (some of the latter continue to/from Dundee). Sundays see an hourly service in both directions around the full circle to Glenrothes.

Services were curtailed as an economy during the coronavirus crisis and in the current (2023) timetable only run between Edinburgh and Glenrothes via Dunfermline (one train per hour), the Kirkcaldy side of the Circle being served only by trains between Edinburgh and Dundee.

Some services regularly ran through to/from Newcraighall until 2015, but with the opening of the Borders Railway in September that year this routing ceased (except for a small number of weekday peak trains).

Stops on the Fife Circle line

Edinburgh to Fife

Here the main line and loop line divide.

Loop line

Main line

The two lines join forming a circle.

Future services

See also: Levenmouth rail link

The east peninsula of Fife beyond Kirkcaldy is not served by railways post-

Leven, where a new station will be built next to the swimming pool and at the disused power station. This service will begin in 2024. This is to satisfy the long term upward trend of cross-Forth communications in Fife's economy. Along this branch line is Cameron Bridge which serves Windygates and Kennoway, where the line runs close to Scotland's largest distillery and Diageo
's main Scottish bottling operations.

The 5 mi (8 km) Leven branch line continued to operate until 2001 supplying coal to

Methil Power Station. Trials of freight trains continued at least until 2003. From 2011, a one-mile stretch of the line was reopened for freight services from Earlseat opencast pit to the mainline at Thornton. Levenmouth is now the largest urban area in Scotland unserved by direct rail services (37,500 in Levenmouth excluding the nearby East Neuk where an estimated 8,500 catchment exists). STAG (Scottish Transport Appraisal Guidance) appraisals conducted in 2008 and again in 2015 indicated a positive case.[8][9] A subsequent analysis described the report as not "as robust as it should have been",[10] however further sustainability studies have continued and are ongoing as of 2019.[11]

Supporters of the line argue it would provide better services to support major industrial sites at Fife Energy Park, Methil Docks, the Low Carbon Park (under construction), Diageo, the businesses along the Leven Valley (including Donaldsons) and major retailers in Leven located close to the line.

Leven was approved by the Scottish Government on 8 August 2019.[14]

It has also been proposed to start a

Edinburgh tram network
.

Electrification

The £55 million first phase, to electrify 65 miles (104 km) of Fife Circle track, between Haymarket and Dalmeny, for use by battery electric multiple units, was begun by Scottish Powerlines in June 2022 and is due to be completed by December 2024.[16][17] Further phases will electrify the lines between Kinghorn, Thornton, Ladybank and Lochgelly.[18]

References

  1. ^ "Route Specifications: Scotland" (PDF). Network Rail. April 2017. p. 20.
  2. ^ a b c Dunfermline Press: Rail Revolution, P1 Friday 12 May 1989.
  3. ^ "Passenger Train Services over Unusual Lines 1988-9" (PDF). The Branch Line Society. Retrieved 31 October 2019.
  4. ^ "New £41m station opens near Edinburgh". BBC News. 12 December 2016.
  5. ^ "Councillors on track to reopen Dunfermline to Kincardine rail line". Dunfermline Press. 11 February 2010.
  6. ^ "Electronic national rail timetable". Network Rail. Table 242. Retrieved 31 October 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
  7. ^ Keane, Kevin (11 May 2008). "MSP says railway would cost £20m". BBC News. BBC. Retrieved 11 July 2012.
  8. ^ Levenmouth sustainable transport study - STAG Part 2 (PDF) (Report). Systra. 9 November 2015.
  9. ^ "Levenmouth Rail Campaign". Railfuture. Retrieved 31 October 2019.
  10. ^ Warrender, Claire (28 April 2018). "Bid to boost case for reinstating Levenmouth rail link". The Courier.
  11. ^ "Levenmouth Sustainable Transport Study". Transport Scotland. Retrieved 31 October 2019.
  12. ^ "The case for reinstatement". Levenmouth Rail Campaign. Archived from the original on 7 April 2019.
  13. ^ Warrender, Claire (6 March 2017). "Scotland's rail strategy criticised as unfair by Levenmouth campaigners". The Courier.
  14. ^ "Disused Fife rail line to be reopened". BBC News. 8 August 2019.
  15. ^ "Cross Forth Ferry/Hovercraft Progress Update". City of Edinburgh Council. 24 November 2009.
  16. ^ "Green light for £55m Scottish Government investment in decarbonisation | Transport Scotland". www.transport.gov.scot. 2 June 2022. Retrieved 10 June 2022.
  17. ^ "Piling work to get underway to electrify line to Fife". Network Rail Media Centre. 2 June 2022. Retrieved 10 June 2022.
  18. ^ "Four phases of Fife Electrification". Network Rail Media Centre. 1 June 2022. Retrieved 10 June 2022.
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