The Edinburgh Airport Rail Link (EARL) was a proposed rail link to

Edinburgh Airport Edinburgh Airport is an airport located in the Ingliston area of Edinburgh, Scotland. It was the busiest airport in Scotland in 2019, handling over 14.7 million passengers. It was also the sixth-busiest airport in the United Kingdom by ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

. The project was passed by the Scottish Parliament in 2007, but following a change of government, was cancelled in September 2007 on the grounds of cost. The link was planned to open in 2011 and would have included an underground airport station located beneath the terminal building. A tunnel was to have been constructed to take trains underneath the main

runway According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and takeoff of aircraft". Runways may be a man-made surface (often asphalt, concre ...

. The Edinburgh Airport Rail Link would have allowed direct rail travel to and from the airport from Scotland's main towns and cities. New

rolling stock The term rolling stock in the rail transport industry refers to railway vehicles, including both powered and unpowered vehicles: for example, locomotives, freight and passenger cars (or coaches), and non-revenue cars. Passenger vehicles can ...

was to be ordered for the service to compensate for any extra journey time created by the additional stop.

Background

Although Edinburgh Airport has no railway station, it lies in close proximity to two major railway lines, the

Fife Circle The Fife Circle Line is the local rail service north from Edinburgh. It links towns of south Fife and the coastal towns along the Firth of Forth before heading to Edinburgh. Operationally, the service is not strictly a circle route, but, rather ...

and the Edinburgh-Glasgow railway lines. The EARL project aimed to construct connecting links from these lines, intersecting at a new underground railway station underneath Edinburgh Airport, in order to provide direct rail links to the airport from

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

and other Scottish cities. The project was proposed by the

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

and

Liberal Democrat Several political parties from around the world have been called the Liberal Democratic Party or Liberal Democrats. These parties usually follow a liberal democratic ideology. Active parties Former parties See also *Liberal democracy *Lib ...

coalition of the Scottish Government and it was also supported by the

Scottish Conservatives The Scottish Conservative & Unionist Party ( gd, Pàrtaidh Tòraidheach na h-Alba, sco, Scots Tory an Unionist Pairty), often known simply as the Scottish Conservatives and colloquially as the Scottish Tories, is a centre-right political par ...

. The Scottish National Party (SNP) and the

Scottish Green Party The Scottish Greens (also known as the Scottish Green Party; gd, Pàrtaidh Uaine na h-Alba ; sco, Scots Green Pairtie) are a green political party in Scotland. The party has seven MSPs in the Scottish Parliament as of May 2021. As of the 20 ...

both opposed the project on grounds of cost and because it duplicated existing bus services. The Edinburgh Airport Rail Link Bill was passed in March 2007 by a vote in the Scottish Parliament of 86 votes to 29. It received

Royal Assent Royal assent is the method by which a monarch formally approves an act of the legislature, either directly or through an official acting on the monarch's behalf. In some jurisdictions, royal assent is equivalent to promulgation, while in oth ...

on 19 April 2007.

Proposed services

Though the exact timetable had not been finalised, the following service pattern was expected to have been implemented: *Edinburgh-Glasgow - 2 trains per hour *Edinburgh-Dunblane - 2 trains per hour *Fife Circle - 2 trains per hour *Edinburgh-Aberdeen - 1 train per hour *Edinburgh-Perth & Inverness - 1 train per hour

Cancellation

Following the

Scottish Parliament election, 2007 The 2007 Scottish Parliament election was held on Thursday 3 May 2007 to elect members to the Scottish Parliament. It was the third general election to the devolved Scottish Parliament since it was created in 1999. Local elections in Scotland ...

, the newly elected SNP minority government announced their intention to cancel the Edinburgh Airport Rail Link project in September 2007 amid concerns over the need for public spending cuts. Transport commentators criticised the cancellation of the EARL project, claiming that approximately £30 million had been spent on the scheme. Edinburgh trams initial service

Tram crossing and signal (geograph 3738450)

Following a vote in the Scottish Parliament on 27 June 2007, the Scottish Government agreed to retain the

Edinburgh Trams Edinburgh Trams is a tramway in Edinburgh, Scotland, operated by Edinburgh Trams Ltd. It is a line between St Andrew Square in the New Town and Edinburgh Airport, with 15 stops. Construction began in June 2008, and after encountering dela ...

project to construct a light rail line between the airport and Edinburgh city centre. John Swinney MSP, the Cabinet Secretary for Finance in the Scottish Government, warned that the full underground EARL project would probably be scrapped in favour of the electrification of the Glasgow-Edinburgh Main Line. The Edinburgh Trams service was launched, on 31 May 2014, as a single light rail route from central Edinburgh to the airport. To address the loss of direct mainline rail links from around Scotland to Edinburgh Airport, the Scottish Government instead proposed a cheaper alternative in the form of a new interchange station at Gogar offering interchange between the

Fife Circle Line The Fife Circle Line is the local rail service north from Edinburgh. It links towns of south Fife and the coastal towns along the Firth of Forth before heading to Edinburgh. Operationally, the service is not strictly a circle route, but, rat ...

and the

Edinburgh to Aberdeen Line Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

and Edinburgh Trams. Construction of the new station, called

Edinburgh Gateway , symbol_location = gb , symbol = rail , symbol2 = edinburgh , image = Edinburgh Gateway Station, view south from the pedestrian overbridge. Scotland.jpg , caption = Edinburgh Gateway s ...

started in April 2015 and it was opened in December 2016.

References

External links

* * * {{authority control Abandoned rail transport projects in the United Kingdom Airport rail links in the United Kingdom Rail Link Cancelled airport rail links