Motorists may have noticed some drilling equipment beside the A95 at Gaich near Grantown-on-Spey. Under the direction of Transport Scotland, site investigation contractors Norwest Holst are drilling holes and digging inspection pits to establish ground conditions for the prospective trunk road scheme that will incorporate a railway tunnel which would see trains running once more into Grantown-on-Spey’s former “West” station site. The scheme, when completed, would both improve the road and enable the Strathspey Railway Charitable Trust to lay railway tracks along the exact line of former 1865 Highland Railway which originally ran to Grantown, over Dava Moor to Forres, and then on to Inverness. The direct route over Slochd summit was completed 33 years later in 1898.

The Strathspey Railway Charitable Trust currently has an obligation to raise £1.25m as a contribution to the tunnel aspect of the intended road improvement works by Transport Scotland. The “Rails to Grantown” project is presently estimated as going to cost the Trust a total of £5 million, including the contribution mentioned above and all of the other work necessary to get trains from Broomhill into a new station on the former Grantown West Station site. Public fund-raising was launched in March 2010 and the Trust continues to seek support from both businesses, large and small, as well as individuals. Major national companies are being contacted with a view to having their involvement.

Both the road improvement and railway extension projects should generate significant benefits for local residents, visitors and travellers. On completion, the Strathspey Railway would have a station terminus in two of the area’s major towns. Instead of a trip from Aviemore to Broomhill and back, visitors can use Grantown either as a destination or a departure point. There would be an increase in visitors to the town’s shops and leisure facilities, more business for catering and accommodation providers and increased passenger traffic for the railway making the extension scheme more sustainable in the long term.

Completion of the rail extension would see something that is already a major tourist draw become one of the finest heritage railway attractions in the UK, providing a round trip of approximately 27 miles.

Everyone can keep up to date with the Project as it progresses by logging into www.railstograntown.org 

QUOTES
SRCT Chairman John Partridge says:- “It is very encouraging for us to to see that Transport Scotland is getting ahead with the necessary site investigations for the road over rail tunnel crossing on the A95.
SRCT Trustee Hendy Pollock says:- “The big challenge for the Trust right now is to raise the necessary contribution to the A95 road/rail project. My hope is that some of the approaches we are presently making, and intending to make, to some of Scotland’s major companies will lead to significant levels of support.”

PRESS CONTACT
Hendy Pollock, Press Officer for Strathspey Railway Company Ltd and the Charitable Trust
E-Mail:- hendyp@snaw.fsnet.co.uk or phone mobile number 07973 667 442.
SRCT WEBSITE is at www.railstograntown.org