It is not unknown to hear somebody complain that the train service at their nearest station is “no better than it was in the days of steam” or words to that effect, although whether this refers to the frequency or the speed, or perceived lack of it, is often not clear. It is certainly true to say this lack of improved frequency applies on some rural routes such as the Middlesbrough to Whitby line. It is also true that when the first Modernisation Plan diesel multiple units were introduced more services may have been run in some places while the bright new interiors, together with the ability to see out of the front windows, increased their appeal. Very often, however, the speed at which they ran was no faster than their steam predecessors, particularly on branch lines in hilly terrain, where the physical limitations of the route made speed increases virtually impossible. Even the latest bi-mode units in East Anglia are no faster than their predecessors.
It can be interesting and instructive to compare frequency and journey times down the years and in this article I do so for the 60odd miles between Edinburgh and Dundee through Fife. The Kingdom of Fife, as it was known long ago, used to be almost two separate and completely different areas - in the south it was heavily industrialised, being dominated by coal mines, whereas in the north and the coastal East Neuk there is extremely fertile arable land. The line was formerly part of the North British Railway (NBR) and had been opened in three distinct stages: the original section ran from Burntisland on the north bank of the Forth to Ladybank where it split - one line going to Perth and the other to Tayport on the Tay. Crossing both the Forth and Tay was by ferry boat, passengers going on foot on a separate vessel from goods trains, operated by the Edinburgh, Perth & Dundee Railway (EP&D), absorbed into the North British in 1862.
The section from Leuchars (junction for St. Andrews) to Tayport became a backwater with the opening of the first Tay Bridge in 1878 when a direct double track route to the Bridge was brought into use. After the Bridge's collapse in December 1879 the ferries were hastily reinstated and the Tayport line resumed its important role until the replacement viaduct was opened to traffic in 1887. The original line then reverted to a sleepy existence. The third and final element came in March 1890 with the opening of the Forth Bridge, there being a new railway from Edinburgh to Dalmeny at the south end although initially the section between Corstorphine and Dalmeny had not been completed so trains used the old route via Kirkliston until work was finished. The second was from North Queensferry to Burntisland via the existing station at Inverkeithing where the direct route to Dunfermline left the new line. Goods traffic began on 16th April but passengers services did not start until 4th June.
Between Edinburgh and Dundee there used to be 21 intermediate stations, Kirkcaldy being largest centre of population. Thornton Junction lay where the line from Dunfermline, Cowdenbeath and the west of Fife came together with others serving Methil, Leven and the east coast. In addition a large marshalling yard and locomotive shed had been established there, both of which were primarily intended to serve the vast volume of coal traffic. Cowdenbeath was for long regarded as the centre of the Fife coalfield with more pits in the Dunfermline area to the
