Edinburgh’s Transport Convener is taking a grip of an active travel project in Edinburgh which has been dormant for at least a decade.
Ten years after the Powderhall railway line was closed, the SNP offered support for the conversion of the former line to an active travel route as one of their manifesto pledges during this year’s Holyrood election.
On Friday, Cllr Stephen Jenkinson has written to Transport Secretary, Stephen Flynn, asking the government to confirm their commitment to support the transformation of the line into Leith’s answer to New York’s High Line.
Since May, political and public momentum has gathered behind the project. The issue was discussed at a meeting of the full City of Edinburgh Council in June, when a move by Green Councillor Chas Booth along with Liberal Democrat, Jack Caldwell, brought the issue back onto the agenda.
The council agreed that the Transport Convener would write to the government asking them to find financial support for part of the project – and crucially to assist in negotiations.
Cllr Stephen Jenkinson, Transport Convener
Speaking to The Edinburgh Reporter on Friday, Cllr Jenkinson said: “This project could be an easy win for all parties and a major bonus for people living in the area. The Campaign Powderhall.Link has done a great deal of work to advance the issue, and now it is time to get round the table and make it happen.”
The ownership and leasing structure of the land along the line is complex, and may take some unravelling. There is a long-term lease understood to be held by a German cargo company over part of the line, complicating any deal despite a willingness from Network Rail to sell.
DB Cargo used to run trains on the line to deliver waste to the old Powderhall Waste Transfer Station for the council, but it exhausted its commercial usefulness with the closure of the transfer station in 2016.
A spokesperson for Powderhall.Link said after June’s council meeting: “It will be interesting to see how the Scottish Government reacts. It may be some time before CEC is in any position to ask for money (no detailed plans can be progressed until ownership – or a lease – is in place.
“It’s now reasonable to expect SG to deal directly with Network Rail to understand (and sort out) the reasons why the Council and NR have been ‘negotiating’ for around 10 years without any apparent progress!”
Letter to the Transport Secretary
The Convener has said in his letter that he would like to know the nature of The Scottish Government’s proposed support and “Specifically, I seek clarification on whether the Scottish Government intends to engage with the Council and Network Rail during ongoing negotiations regarding the transfer of the former railway line, and if it will provide assistance to facilitate the next stages required to progress the project.”
The SNP said in their manifesto that they would “support efforts to bring the Powderhall railway line into use as a new walking and cycling route in the capital”.
A feasibility study conducted by Jacobs in 2023 shows that the costs of converting the line into a space for people to use could be as much as £8.4 million, including infrastructure works.
Andy Arthur and Chris Hill, active travel campaigners, set up the Powderhall.Link website to “encourage a future for the former railway line to Powderhall”, and timed an FOI request earlier this year- and the renewal of the campaign – to mark the 40th anniversary of the completion of a section of the North Edinburgh Paths at Pilton.
The Pilton Path was reclaimed from the trackbed of an old railway by a grassroots “slightly anarchic” team of volunteers in under a week.
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Powderhall Link PHOTO Ross Chalmers
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