Laying the Groundwork for the Borders to Edinburgh Link

It’s exciting times for the Borders to Edinburgh Rail Link, a project that John Lessels Landscaping has been keeping a very close eye on since we were involved in some of the ground works for this important project.
Last month, Network Rail announced that they were more or less halfway there, with 44 per cent of the line which will stretch between Edinburgh and Tweedbank, south of Galashiels, being finished, and that by the end of May they should have been at least halfway there.

It will be great to see the trains run for the first time in 46 years, in September 2015, as we’re too young to remember when the old Waverley line to Carlisle was still in use. The line should be in operation again by next summer, and following driver training and line testing will be open for rail users by September.
The rail link has been an absolutely massive project; construction started last year and so far over 850 members of staff have worked on it, clocking up 2.1 million hours. That’s not including independent contractors like ourselves. Rumour has it that there have been over 25,000 bacon rolls supplied to construction workers so far…we may or may not have partaken in a few ourselves!

You wouldn’t believe the amount of work that goes into reopening an old railway line. For example, it’s involved refurbishing 104 bridges, installing 16 miles of drainage, and moving 804,000 tonnes of earth. That’s an awful lot of digging. That’s not to mention the logistics involved in stabilising the old mines along the route, restoring the Lothianbridge viaduct and two tunnels, and re-routing a section of the Edinburgh City Bypass! We’re sure it will be worth it to have this important strategic railway line back in operation.

Interestingly, we’ve also heard that Alex Salmond has been hinting that it’s possible the Borders Railway could be re-opened all the way back to Carlisle. He was also keen on trying to bring high speed railways into Scotland, but we’ll believe that when we see it.

At John Lessels Landscaping we’re very proud to have been able to contribute in our own way to the project, and we’ll be watching in anticipation to see what happens next.