An Edinburgh to St Andrews rail link will be discussed at an upcoming public consultation.
The Scottish Government have backed and funded plans to create better transport facilities for the town and a local pressure group has formed.
The St Andrews Rail Link (StARLink) campaign has been running for over three decades and wants to see travel links to the likes of Edinburgh and Dundee.
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The group insist that an hourly service, introduced between the Fife town and Edinburgh, would be cost efficient.
They believe that it would be economical to have an hourly service from St Andrews to Edinburgh, reaching Cupar in 10 minutes, Dunfermline in 49 minutes and the Edinburgh Airport interchange in 69 minutes.
The St Andrews Transport Study was commissioned in 2019 and locals in the Fife town now have three weeks to have their say on the potential new travel link.
Another recent study discovered that 90 per cent of students at St Andrews university travel outside the town at least once a month, and mostly to Edinburgh.
The historical St Andrews rail line was closed in 1969 and the campaigners have been battling for its reinstatement for 30 years now.
The StARLink group say that it would cost £76 million in total to have it back fully operational.
The Scottish Government’s Local Rail Development Fund (LRDF) is supporting the St Andrews Transport consultation.
The study’s website explains more about the St Andrews to Edinburgh link in greater detail.
It says: “The option proposes a station location near the St Andrews Gateway building to the north west of the town and allows for the operation of a rail service to Edinburgh and a local link to Dundee as a free standing service. This would significantly improve journey times and connectivity to and from St Andrews by providing an attractive alternative to the private car which will benefit many of those who travel to and from St Andrews.
“The heavy rail option itself allows for the operation of services to Edinburgh, with potential calls at Cupar, Markinch for Glenrothes, Kirkcaldy-Inverkeithing or Dunfermline and Edinburgh Gateway.
“The local Dundee link is potentially hourly or half hourly and would improve connectivity to Aberdeen, Perth, Stirling and Glasgow where currently a bus / rail interchange is required.
“The alignment shown keeps the railway on the south side of the A91 for the whole of its length to Guardbridge. As the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) will not permit the provision of new level crossings on the heavy rail network (except in exceptional circumstances), this will require bridges over secondary roads and accesses off the south of the A91 and / or rationalisation of these accesses.
“Heavy rail also gives the opportunity to bring charter trains, such as steam-hauled specials or the Royal Scotsman land cruise train, for a day visit or to overnight in St Andrews and additional large, long distance trains to serve big attendance events such as The Open. A Park & Ride site is not included with this option due to frequency (maximum 3 trains per hour) being insufficient to operate a successful St Andrews P&R.”
