Borders Railway smashes forecast passenger figures

The Borders Railway has beaten traffic forecasts by 22%, with almost 700,000 passengers travelling on the route in its first six months of operation.

The Edinburgh Waverley-Tweedbank route opened in September 2015 (RAIL 783), and ScotRail’s latest figures show that 694,373 single journeys were made from September 6 2015 to March 6 2016.

The route’s terminus - Tweedbank - recorded 183,918 journeys in the first six months against a forecast of 18,978, followed by Galashiels on 104,593 (forecast: 20,567). Newtongrange also exceeded forecasts, with 50,480 single journeys (forecast: 46,449), as did Stow with 24,365 journeys (forecast: 5,129)

Eskbank recorded fewer journeys than forecast (65,672 against 114,568), as did Gorebridge (39,400 journeys compared with a forecast of 79,014) and Shawfair (9,398 single journeys against forecasts of 54,298). 

• For more on this, read RAIL 802, published on June 8.