The CREDIBLE J ourn ey 10,000 Names Campaign Update 13 January 2016 py ap — H r! A ea 6 Y 01 w 2 Ne oy “£40 Million” for Hauliers’ nj E Losses is Over Half Cost of New Levenmouth Rail Link Important Service Startling — and Telling — Consequence of Emergency Repairs Announcement and Closure of Forth Road Bridge ——–— Would All Prospective Courtesy: Edinburgh Evening News .. Passengers for the LAST MONTH’s emergency repairs and Next Trains due to closure of the Forth Road Bridge has high- Depart from Leven and lighted the isolation of the Levenmouth Cameronbridge please community as its 37,000 or so inhabitants await further yearn for a revived rail link, but this particu- announcements from lar cloud may prove to have a silver lining. LMRC …. …. … .. The Road H aulage Association [ R.H.A. ], … and, Oh!, Please which represents the vast majority of truck Remember, you can still drivers in Britain, states that barring heavy goods vehicles from the Bridge ’til Febru- help our Campaign by ary, or an extra six or seven weeks, “will contacting L MRC cost firms more than £40 million” in total. (Details on Page 2], and That is more than half the £76.6M lobbying your MSP, MP or Councillor … quoted as the top price for reinstating the Levenmouth Rail Link , and, for this de- Network Rail Survey: prived area at least, that would certainly be Please! Take The Time a very wise investment and an ‘insurance’ to tell Network Rail’s against such transport crises in the future. Consultants Just How Hauliers have warned that keeping the Much You Want Rail Bridge out—of—bounds to trucks, despite Above: The affected north end of the Forth Link Back!... Story and re-opening it to other vehicles, would cost Details on Page Two Road Bridge, at about the time of its 50th. each haulage business an average of anniversary in September 2014. There around £50,000. Some could even be left has been very little to celebrate recently. bankrupt, the R.H.A. also claimed. Our advancing Below: Hauliers such as Malcolm Logis- Freight operators from Fife in general, Train shows that tics , who work with Diag eo at Leven, as and the Levenmouth and East Neuk area in we have already shown here, stand to lose out heavily as particular, are being seriously affected by gathered the Bridge remains closed to them now. the ban on trucks making the Forth cross- ing and, since before Christmas, drivers 8 ,1 9 3 have been obliged to continue diverting via of our target of Kincardine and the bridges there — adding 10,000 signatures around 40 miles, (64 kms.), and a lot of on our Petition ! — by 3 January 2016 extra time and cost, in either direction. All this, as well as having to contend (See Back Page) with poor road links in Levenmouth, makes the rail link plan far more worthwhile and a proper rail link from there vital at any time. Campaign Progress ‘REINSTATE THE THORNTON -LEVEN RAIL -LINK NOW !’ Answers Connect Now For Leven Rail Link Reconnection ! THE LEVENMOUTH Rail Campaign , fearing that their ambitions for the reconnection of the line to Thornton might be “overlooked or sidelined while other, more- headline-grabbing transport investment clamours for at- FAQ tention ”, have called on supporters and the general public Frequently-Asked Questions … Answered to tell Network Rail ’s ‘Scotland Route Long Range’ plan- ning consultants how much they want Leven back on -line ! ‘How will Rail Link be Connected?’ www.networkrail.co.uk/long-term-planning-process/scotland-route-stu dy “LEVEN Would be Connected to Glenrothes-with- Ghost of a Chance… ! Thornton junction (as part of the Fife Circle ). This oper- ates half-hourly services, involving journey times of 1970 … ... Research around 1 hr 10 minutes to Edinburgh Waverley, 20 min- Shows Up Feelings utes to Kirkcaldy, or 40 minutes to Dunfermline. By changing at Kirkcaldy, it should require no more than a 1- of a Town’s Isolation hour journey to Dundee or Perth. Rail connection allows Levenmouth residents easy access to the entire national TO BE Fair — Ma ybe ! — to the rail network, the freedom to go anywhere we are pres- officials in this story, it might just ently denied. A new station is, incidentally, also planned take them some time to catch up ... for Edinburgh airport, and with the Rail Link, would allow They hadn’t found out before a Levenmouth folks direct connections for foreign travel. ” row over one commuter’s travel expenses showed up the conse- “Where Would The Trains Come From?” quences of Leven’s rail isolation Image: Microsoft very soon after the station closed. ‘Clip -Art’ Library . “WITH THE Completion of the electrification of the Glasgow-to-Edinburgh line, by 2017 — which requires This story, reported by the East Fife Mail in February new equipment — there will be plenty of conventional 1970, has been uncovered during research work on pre- rolling—stock available. ” — L.M.R.C.. vious Levenmouth rail campaigns by LMRC News’ editor Alistair Aynscough. It centred on none other than the Dean of Guild, F. Traynor, who had already been involved in the fight to save the rail link ahead of its 1969 closure. PLEASE SIGN OUR He was, in 1970, the representative of all Scottish Burghs on the Scottish Nursery Nurses’ Examination ON -LINE PETITION ! Board but, when he needed to submit his travel ex- penses, there was a refusal, and the letter read: “… The www.gopetition.co m Chairman of the … Board has asked me to write to you concerning your claim for reimbursement of expenses in connection with your attendance of a [Glasgow] meeting. .... .... .... Thanks!Thanks! Resignation Threat CAMPAIGN “… If there is any reason why you must travel by pri- Below: Holyrood House , seen vate car instead of by train , will you please send me a on Wednesday, 2 September. note for submission to the chairman?” Needless to say, Dean Traynor sent his note promptly, CALL telling the board that the railway had closed to passen- gers four months earlier — and now there was also a long-running bus strike affecting the Levenmouth area. Dean Traynor said this was the first time he had had a travel claim questioned, and he had even threatened to resign from the examinations authority. “I am considering my resignation from the board”, he told the East Fife Mail ; “I am fed-up with the whole thing. You give of your time free, and this is what happens!!” LMRC Contacts … … ℡ “LOBBY YOUR MSP!” SAY LMRC CLEAR Buckhaven , 36 College St., Buckhaven, THE LMRC are Appealing for anyone who KY8 1JY. - [Opposite Library and Council Offices] wants the Levenmouth Rail Link back to write to E-Mail: [email protected] ’Phone: 01592-713078 their MSP, MP and Councillor right away. The Main Website : www.lmrc-action.org.uk more they do, the more chance there will be for Facebook - www.facebook.com/ this important matter to be discussed where it levenmouth.railcampaign matters, at the Scottish Parliament itself … ! This News -Letter has been Produced by ALISTAIR AYNSCOUGH , Colinsburgh, From The Creator of ‘Brougham Fife, on Behalf of the LevenMouth Rail Campaign . Hall News’ The CREDIBLE J ourn ey 10,000 Names Campaign Update 14 February 2016 Less Than One -Hundred Days to Go ….. …. … .. 9,000 Names LMRC Set to “Get Up Steam” as Holyrood Important Election Nears Service THE LEVENMOUTH RAIL CAMPAIGN Courtesy: East Fife Mail. … Announcement has called upon everyone who wants in making the case for the reinstatement of ——–— their cut -off community reconnected the LevenMouth Rail Link at the national Would All Prospective to the national railway network, to level. LMRC members will be attending key Passengers for the join the campaign to make this long — events offered to all the political parties held dream a reality at last. contesting the coming Holyrood elections, Next Trains due to They are appealing for help such as as well as the Cross-Party Group meeting. Depart from Leven and collecting signatures at local shows and “We are hopeful of a motion being de- Cameronbridge please fetes, assisting at key publicity events, or bated at the Scottish Parliament in the await further handing out literature for the LM RC . coming months, and hope to support this announcements from LMRC …. …. … .. Writing for his regular column in the with a small reception for members in the East Fife Mail , the LMRC secretary, Allen Parliament Building, in Edinburgh”. … and, Oh!, Please Armstrong, stated: “Activists are gearing Remember, you can still up again after the New Year break. LMRC help our Campaign by is launching a condensed ‘Briefing Paper’ contacting L MRC aimed primarily at decision-makers and, (Details on Page 2 ), and especially, MSP’s., as part of the spring lobbying your MSP, drive to get our cause accepted by the MP or Councillor … main political parties”. There are now less than 100 days to Network Rail Survey: impress. The Scottish General Election, Please! Take The Time for prized places as MSP’s. in the cham- to tell Network Rail’s ber at Holyrood, is on Thursday, 5th. May. Consultants Just How “LM RC is a member of national trans- Much You Want Rail port campaigning organisation Transform Link Back!... Story and Scotland ”, Dr. Armstrong adds; “… and Above: The LMRC stall at Leven’s Classic Details on Page Two have been able to call upon their expertise Vehicle Show on 28th. June, last year. Our advancing IF KYLE OF LOCHALSH Train shows that KEPT ITS RAILWAY … we have already WHY DIDN’T WE ... ?! gathered A “VITAL Lifeline” and “Poor Road 8 ,1 9 3 Links” were among the main rea- of our target of sons why Kyle of Lochalsh , ( Left , in 10,000 signatures October 2014), and other North of on our Petition ! Scotland communities managed to — by 3 January 2016 stay on the railway network — yet LevenMouth, with a far-larger popu- (See Back Page) lation, lost out … despite very similar problems with roads and other ser- vices.