System National Rail Locale Scotland Stations 8 | Owner Network Rail Operator Abellio ScotRail | |
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Type Commuter rail
Regional rail
Heavy rail Depot(s) Glasgow Shields Road
Millerhill Depot (From 2017) Rolling stock Class 158 "Express Sprinter"
(For use on Saturday Dunbar Services)
Class 170 "Turbostar"
(For use on one weekday morning and evening peak time train)
Class 380 "Desiro"
(All other Services)
Class 385 From December 2017 Number of tracks Double-track from Waverley to Drem
Single-track from Drem to North Berwick Track gauge 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 ⁄2 in) Electrification 25 kV AC railway electrification Termini Edinburgh Waverley railway station | ||
The North Berwick Line is a railway line linking Edinburgh with North Berwick in Scotland. The route follows the East Coast Main Line as far as Drem where it then branches to the north.
Contents
The section between Drem and Edinburgh Waverley shares the track with the Virgin Trains East Coast London Kings Cross - Edinburgh Waverley service. It consists of all or part of the following Network Rail routes:
Passenger services are operated by Abellio ScotRail. The line is electrified at 25 kV AC overhead.
Services
Most services run between North Berwick and Edinburgh Waverley, with peak-time services continuing to Haymarket and 2 services a day continuing through to Glasgow Central and onwards to Ayr. Service is generally hourly between 7am and 7pm, with half hourly service at peak time and on Saturdays, and a reduced hourly service on weekday evenings and Sundays.
Although incorporated into the same timetable from May 2010, ScotRail provide services to Dunbar; however, these typically did not stop at intermediate stations. From May 2011, all ScotRail services to/from Dunbar now stop at Musselburgh. These services run two hourly during Mondays-Saturdays with an additional late night service.
Rolling stock
The Class 380 "Desiro" has been using the route since June 2011. They replaced the Class 322's in which they finished service on this line in August the same year after 6 years. They have been cascaded onto the Wakefield Line with Northern Rail. Due to the amount of 380's taking on the half hourly North Berwick services during Saturdays, a Class 170 "Turbostar" regularly took on these services to Dunbar in the December 2012 timetable when the Saturday daytime services to Dunbar by Scotrail was introduced. But since 2016, it has now been provided by a Class 158 "Express Sprinter". The class 170 can also sometimes run to North Berwick because of ScotRail's lack of EMUs based in Edinburgh particularly during peak times.
From December 2017, ScotRail services on the North Berwick Line will begin to use new Class 385 units. Services will be formed of six coaches (two 3-car units) following growing passenger numbers (the platform at North Berwick was extended in early 2016 to accommodate these new longer trains). In the short term Class 380/1s (four car) will be removed from the line and two Class 380/0s (three car) used instead until the Summer and back again to four car units until December. Once the new units arrive, The Class 380 units will be cascaded to increase capacity on the Ayrshire and Inverclyde Lines to and from Glasgow making all services on these routes operated by Class 380s.
Historical route
As with many contemporary routes, trains on this line run on the metals of several historical routes: