(257)  WAVERLEY LINE: BILL LAUNCHED

A Private Bill to authorise the re-opening of the Waverley railway line from Newcraighall near Edinburgh to Tweedbank by Galashiels in the Scottish Borders was published on 11 September 2003, and can be read on the Scottish Parliament website.  It is estimated at present that rebuilding the line, which was closed in 1969, will cost £130 million.  A public inquiry is scheduled for 2004, and opponents of the Bill have sixty days within which to lodge objections, albeit for a charge of £20.  While much of the trackbed of the Waverley line is still visible, a good deal of it has been subsumed within farm and other private property, and some of it has been built upon.  Websites with further information include the Waverley Route Heritage Association (http://www.wrha.org.uk/) and the Campaign for Borders Rail (http://www.borderrail.co.uk/).