30-07-2025
Couple who closed station lose legal battle...as they couldn't get train to court
A couple blamed for the closure of one of Scotland's remotest railway stations have lost their civil case against Network Rail - after they failed to turn up in court.
Elizabeth Howe and Ian Appleby were accused of bringing Altnabreac Station, Caithness, to a halt by refusing to allow workmen to access the site.
Now in a series of YouTube videos about the ongoing feud over access to and land ownership with the railway operators they claim one of the reasons for their no show was because there were unable to get the train.
The couple, who live on the station platform, are still facing a criminal trial for culpable and reckless conduct, but they have hit out on their social media channel claiming the dismissal of their civil action was not on merit' but 'on the grounds we did not attend'.
Mr Appleby tells viewers: 'When they demanded that we attend the court hearing in person we did make it known that was very unreasonable considering we had transport issues. We can't use the train and we don't have transport at the moment, and we wouldn't have been able to attend hearings which were in Wick, which would have been a 50-mile round trip. It's just unreasonable.'
Ms Howe said she was convinced they 'were being punished for trying to tell the truth'.
She said: 'We wrote to Wick Sheriff Court to make our position clear and told them that we couldn't attend further hearings but we had no intention of abandoning the action. Our main objective was to ensure we were receiving a fair hearing.'
Mr Appleby recalled a previous hearing which they attended via Webex in which he disagreed with what had happened and said as a result 'there is no way we could consent to further hearings'.
The couple, who were blamed for closing the station in 2023 after allegedly preventing railway workers from gaining access to the platform to carry out basic maintenance, had their civil case dismissed by Wick Sheriff Court in May.
They are now due to stand trial in September on charges of culpable and reckless conduct after they allegedly crossed barriers onto the level crossing at the station and onto the rail track while trains were approaching.
Ms Howe, who formerly served as a police officer in Greater Manchester, and Mr Appleby have lived at the old station house at Altnabreac, where there have been access disputes, since 2021.
ScotRail resumed services to the station earlier this year.
Network Rail said it welcomed the outcome of the recent legal proceedings in which the case against it was dismissed, adding: 'We remain focused on delivering a safe and reliable railway for all our customers.'
