SCOTLAND seems to be the land of opportunity when it comes to rail. While cuts abound in England, electric trains have begun operating on the Barrhead route from Glasgow Central (see Headline News), a new station has opened at East Linton on the East Coast Main Line (see Headline News) and, later this year, passenger trains will return to the Levenmouth route some 55 years after the last passenger services.
As this issue of Rail Express went to press, driver training was due to get underway on the five-mile line to Leven, ahead of the planned reintroduction of passenger trains from June.
The line runs from Leven to the Fife Circle at Thornton Junction, with a station at Cameron Bridge. South East Scotland Transport Partnership and Fife Council promoted the project which received formal approval by the Scottish government in August 2019.
Trains first arrived in Leven on July 3, 1854. Just like the soon-to-reopen service, they served the seaside town of Leven plus Cameron Bridge. A new station site opened in Leven in 1885; 24 years later in 1909 the line was doubled. Freight was a major user of rail in the area until 1966 when that ceased running east of Leven. Passenger trains ended in 1969 and three years later the railway to Kirkland Yard, Leven was singled.
