Who are we and what do we want?
Why Beattock?
It is located on the West Coast Main line – Britains’s busiest train line.
Because Beattock was a station, all the signalling machinery is still operational.
It has land available for car parking and is less than a mile from the A74(M).
It can readily alternate as a station with Lockerbie.
What would re-opening Beattock Station achieve?
Take cars and their passengers off the road – a long term aim of the Scottish Government.
Allow Moffat and Beattock residents to study and work in this area.
Offer residents of this area access to travel to the rest of Britain.
Make the economy of the area less reliant on tourism.
How do we know it will work?
Beattock is currently estimated to attain a minimum of 86,000 users per annum.
FACT: Every single re-opened station has exceeded it’s estimated usage.
The Process
Before any station can be opened a STAG Report has to be completed.
(STAG stands for Scottish Transport Appraisal Guidance).
The Beattock STAG report took 5 years to complete and on more than one occasion, seemed doomed to failure. In 2013 BSAG was told that our STAG would not be supported by Dumfries and Galloway Council.
Our then Chairman, Martin Brown asked if we could have our own STAG if we raised funds ourselves and the local community, including individuals and businesses, raised £14,000!
What have we been doing since 2012?
The STAG process is exceedingly slow, but other things have happened over the years. We ran our own survey of Moffat residents, business owners and visitors and over 600 responses were recorded and were overwhelmingly supportive.
In 2017 a Community Action Plan was envisaged (which sadly didn’t materialise), but in the consultation process, the re-opening of Beattock Station figured strongly. A survey of Moffat Academy pupils recorded the fact that their number one priority was re-opening Beattock Station!
Moffat Academy pupils visited the Scottish Parliament in 2018 and met the Transport Minister, one Humza Yousaf…
Things change…
In the 14 years since the formation of BSAG, the application process has changed more than once and we are now in a “pipeline”.
However with the help of SWESTRANS (South West Transport) we have completed the STAG and the next stage for us will be preparation of a Business Case.
Are we downhearted? NO!
In 2023 we had 2 setbacks. In January 2023, we received a letter from Transport Scotland rejecting our STAG report, and instructing SWESTRANS to remove it from its Long Term Transport Strategy.
HOWEVER, in March 2024, the Scottish Transport Minister signed off the Long Term Transport Strategy which clearly contains the re-opening of Beattock Station as a long-term aim.
Then in June 2023, Transport Scotland made a statement to the effect that “no more stations would be opened after the ones already in progress.”
NB Transport Scotland is an unelected body. BSAG will continue to keep our profile raised with our elected officials…
Opportunities in 2024 – Election year?
Beattock Station Action Group still believes that our best way forward is through the political process. To that end, we will contact every politician, at the local and national level and keep them aware of our existence. In July 2024 we tried to contact EVERY candidate and make them aware of our campaign.
Who are we?
We are Ron McLean (Chair) Franca Bruno (Vice Chair) Katherine Clemmens (Secretary). Sylvia Moffat, (Treasurer) Peter Dreghorn, Alex Borthwick. John Kane and Ralph Barker.
The BSAG committee in 2022 with David Mundell MP, Colin Smyth MSP and Cllr Stephen Thompson.
Our friends and partners
From the beginning of our campaign, we have had consistent support from SWESTRANS. Our Chair, Ron McLean, is also Vice Chair of Rail Futures Scotland, the umbrella group for groups like ours. We’ve also had cross party support from SNP, Labour, and Conservative politicians. And we have had consistent support from the communities of Beattock, Moffat and all over Scotland.
2 people we’ll always miss…
Hugh Geddes, also a founder member, a Beattock man and a railwayman
Martin Brown, our first Chair and on the founder members of BSAG