Passenger rail station plan hits the buffers

Hopes of being able to catch a train from Bridge of Earn appear to have hit the buffers.

- KATHRYN ANDERSON

Land has been reserved for the proposed rail halt as part of the Oudenarde development master plan but the project has yet to come to fruition.

Transport Scotland has said it has not received a strategic business case for a new rail station at Bridge of Earn/Oudenarde to justify progressing this rail option.

The proposed rail halt was raised by Cllr Richard Watters - who represents Perth and Kinross Council on Tactran (Tayside and Central Regional Transport Partnership) - at a council committee meeting last week.

A rail halt or rail stop is where passengers can occasionally board or leave a train.

As the Planning and Placemaking Committee considered plans for the latest housing phase of the Oudendarde development, on Wednesday May 14, Cllr Watters asked about plans to create a rail connection.

The site - where 43 houses were approved - sits south of the Perth to Edinburgh railway line.

Cllr Watters said: “There was land set aside for a potential railway station within the master development. Does that still stand?”