Railway station bid fails to win backing

A POPULAR campaign to reinstate a coastal north-east railway station has failed to receive support from the government's transport agency.

A campaign to reopen Newtonhill station was launched by residents not long after it closed in 1956.

At a special meeting of Kincardine and Mearns area committee yesterday, transport manager Peter MacCallum told councillors: “Transport Scotland was extremely clear it is their position that they would not support a new station at Newtonhill.

“They would rather see the existing station at Portlethen developed. At the moment there is a limited stopping pattern there. In the first instance priority should be to get that fully operational rather than build another station which would potentially slow down strategic inter-city trips from Aberdeen to the central belt.”

The position goes against the new Aberdeen city and shire structure plan, which lays out plans to reopen the Newtonhill station at some point in the future.

A Transport Scotland spokeswoman said: “Ministers seek to balance the desire to attract new users against the impact on network capacity and the needs of existing passengers, whilst taking account of value for money and affordability.

“Reopening a station at Newtonhill may conflict with the government’s objective of reducing journey times. Introducing stopping services at Newtonhill could also limit the potential to accommodate wider service improvements.”

Newtonhill councillor Ian Mollison remained confident the village's station would be reopened.

“Crossrail went from being a very sensible cogent plan to balance the AWPR (Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route), to being an incremental plan introducing the stations one at a time,” he said.

“Kintore is the next one and I will continue to push Newtonhill as the one after that.”