St Andrews report featured in professional journal

The article cites the GIS overlay and land mapping techniques used, which take account of geological features to indicate the suitability of the underlying rock, which gives an earthworks cost, including SSSI disturbance values, of £70M with 30% risk for 7855 m of single-track line with passive provision for doubling and a second platform. The alignment includes a triangular junction to permit direct running to Edinburgh and to Dundee. The former would run every hour via West Fife to ease line occupancy, stopping at Cupar, Dunfermline Town, Edinburgh Gateway and Haymarket, giving a total journey time of 1 hr 15 mins. The Dundee service would stop at Leuchars and could run half-hourly.

The demand study follows industry guidance, including the Passenger Demand Forecasting Handbook, which assumes that people act rationally. As this is a new line, an estimate of absolute, as opposed to existing, demand was required, so a trip rate model, using linear regression and including specific St Andrews data, was created. To reflect factors unique to St Andrews, a 25% enhancement was added to footfall relative to population for existing Fife stations, and the abstraction from Leuchars was calculated in similar fashion. Increased use at the intermediate stations were added using a basic formula and the revenue impact was obtained based upon National Rail trends and Scottish Transport statistics.

St Andrews forecast - 385-508km journeys (less abstraction from Leuchars) with net annual revenue between £0.653M and £1.637M, with travel time reduction benefits between £0.214M and £0.269M and those pertaining to modal transfer between £0.069M and £0.166M.

The authors concluded that ‘local issues should be seen in the context of St Andrews as a world class destination for golf and its university, whose improved connectivity can make a significant contribution to the Scottish economy.’ They commend their findings for further study consistent with the Government’s Scottish Transport Appraisal Guidelines (STAG).