Hawick's Nobel prize winners 'gung-ho' for extension of Borders Railway
Scottish Borders Council also revealed plans to set-up a new working group to drive project forward
Last updated 10th Mar 2023
Two of the brightest brains from the Borders are adding their voices to calls to extend the region's railway.
Sir Angus Deaton and Richard Henderson - both Nobel prize-winners - revealed they relied on the former Waverley Line to get to school in Hawick, before it closed more than half a century ago.
Richard, who lived in Newcastleton at the time and went on to be awarded a Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, told Radio Borders: "We're gung-ho for this."
Sir Angus, who lived in Bowden and went on to be awarded a Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences, added: "It really connected us up, and it was a special thing.
"It was the Waverley Line, it was all connected with Sir Walter Scott; I, at least, was very proud of Walter Scott - another great figure of the Borders."
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The pair, who both turned 77 this year, travelled by train as far as the new rail terminus in Tweedbank, from Edinburgh, last week as they returned to the Borders on a trip down memory lane.
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"I had the same experience as Richard did, but in the opposite direction," Sir Angus explained. "I was coming from (the station at) Newtown St Boswells and we made the same walk along Commercial Road to get to school."
And he added: "The reason I sometimes missed the train was there was a great library just by the train station in Hawick."
Last month, it was reported "good progress" has been made behind the scenes to push forward a study into the feasibility of extending the Borders Railway, between Tweedbank and Carlisle.
Councillors heard the Scottish Government has now accepted "the strategic case to process the work has now been achieved", and the local authority was awaiting the same confirmation from the UK government.
In the meantime, Scottish Borders Council is reaffirming its commitment to extend the line by setting-up a new working group to drive the project forward.
Local authority convener Watson McAteer told Radio Borders it will include members of neighbouring councils, as well as rail campaigners; and look at things like whether the line should be single or double-tracked.
"I know we've had lots of issues about how long it might take," Councillor Watson said. "But, you know what, it's the future - Hawick, Newcastleton, and the southern Borders to Carlisle. We need to get the railway connected up. It's about the young folk and what opportunity they might have. And I'm looking forward to seeing some positive progress over the next few years.
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"We will look at aspects around will it be single, will it be double lined? We know there has been some feasibility work already done by the Campaign for Borders Rail on this, so we'll bring the campaign in to help us with that. We'll look at the issue around the land, have the engineering works already been done, or do we need to do more?
"Everybody's been asking how the railway's progressing, saying there's no obvious signs. Well, actually, now I think the stake's in the ground from a council point of view to be committed to driving this forward."
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