Making tracks to the future?

WITH plans to revive the South Sub in doubt we look at the railway's place in city history we look at the railway's place in city history.

HULKING machines of grey steel may not seem the stuff of fairy tales, but there is a mystique to travelling by train that has transcended time. Step aboard a locomotive at Waverley and even the most mundane journey can become imbued with possibility and a sense of adventure . . . well, as long as rush hour is behind you, that is.

Names like the Flying Scotsman or the New Talisman make up part of Scotland's proud rail history, as do the miles and miles of track on which they run, connecting all of the UK's major cities, including Edinburgh, with Europe and the rest of the world.

But what of the smaller stretches of line that were once a pivotal part of the Capital's communication network?

The Edinburgh Suburban and South Side Junction Railway or the South Sub as it was more commonly known, hit the headlines this week.

Proposals to reopen it were derailed due to concern over how much it would cost to run, as well as rebuild, the lost passenger railway stations.

The South Sub first opened in 1884. Initially it was used only for freight, but it wasn't long before hundreds of Edinburgh residents were using the service to travel between various outlying parts of the city.

There was a time when Gorgie, Craiglockhart, Morningside, Blackford Hill, Newington and Duddingston were all passenger stops along the twisting circular route of the South Sub and thronged with people heading to Portobello, Piershill, Abbeyhill, Waverley and Haymaket.

Looking at images of Corstorphine railway station on a hot summer day in June 1966 you can almost hear the sound of snorting horses en route to the Royal Highland Show at Ingliston.

The once busy station closed a year later.

The platform of the former Morningside Station remains, but little else, while across from the Usher Hall the Caledonian Station, also known as the Caley Station, closed in 1965 and was demolished five years later. Kingsknowe is still in use today, but for freight only, and all that remains of Newington Station is a set of stone steps which leads down on to the railway line but then stops short with no warning.

In the early 1960s, the South Suburban train line was closed for passengers and those who had previously made good use of the service were forced to look elsewhere.

Residents who had once relied on the trains to get to and from work, found the daily commute a perpetual headache.

Today many people still shudder at the prospect of braving the traffic jams on the way into work, while the thought of trying to find parking in our winding streets can be enough to induce a full-blown panic.

It seems doubtful that passengers will ever be able to travel home along the South Sub as they once did, but by remembering the Capital's transport links as they once were, we can at least envisage a time in the future when things might run a little more smoothly.