New West Lothian railway station plans 'imminent' amid hope it could open by 2030
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Plans for the new Winchburgh railway station will come before West Lothian councillors within months.
The business case for development of the station is near completion and designs are ready to go to planning consent.
A report to councillors, set to go before a meeting of West Lothian's Executive on Tuesday, says: 'It is anticipated that a planning application (likely to be an application for matters specified in conditions) is expected to be submitted to the council as planning authority imminently.'
That means the principle of the station has already been accepted; only details have to be agreed. The station could be operational by the end of the decade.
The report said: 'On 6 May the First Minister set out the Scottish Government's Programme for Government for 2025-26. The programme makes specific reference to a railway station at Winchburgh in the section on A Safe Sustainable Transport System for Scotland.'
That says funding should be considered for the new station.
Network Rail is set to lodge the planning application. The station cost is estimated at between £20.5 million and £22 million.
The report details: 'An additional stop at Winchburgh has already been incorporated within the timetable for the Edinburgh – Dunblane service and this has no timetabling impacts on the Edinburgh- Falkirk High – Glasgow timetable.'
The design will incorporate an initial 100 space car park with room for expansion.
The reports adds: 'Modelling of the station forecasts around 625 passengers boarding per day at Winchburgh in 2030, increasing to 768 in 2045.
'In the morning peak hour there will be around 80 passengers travelling towards Edinburgh and an estimated 50 towards Stirling. This will equate to an increase of around 10% in rail usage on the Stirling to Edinburgh rail service.
'Winchburgh passenger demand is forecast to grow by around 20% between 2030-45. There is likely to be a 20-25% reduction in bus patronage when the station opens but this loss will be recovered as the housing development is built out.'
As a comparison passenger usage at nearby railway stations shows Linlithgow has 1,400 passengers a day and Uphall with 650. Only Falkirk High, with 1,100 passengers comes close to Linlithgow, with passenger numbers in the hundreds at Polmost and Falkirk Grahamston.
A steering group, which includes the lead developer, Winchburgh Developments, Transport Scotland, Network Rail, SEStran, ScotRail, the City Region Deal and the council, has been meeting monthly for around a year now and 'good progress is being made'.
The steering group reports to a stakeholder group comprising MSPs and elected members from the council together with members of the steering group. The next meeting of the stakeholder group has been confirmed for later this month.
With the business case complete and designs ready funding has to be secured. Current costs are based on 2027 estimates.
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