http://powderhall.link/2026/06/21/edinburgh-critical-mass-to-visit-p-l/
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Infrastructure
Post Powderhall (coming soon??)
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Posted 1 month ago #
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The Powderhall Link campaign is the focus of this week’s Edinburgh Critical Mass family-friendly mass protest / group ride, leaving at 2pm from Middle Meadow Walk this Saturday 27th; the ride will make a stop for brief talk about the project in St Mark’s Park, before skirting the route of the now-inactive railway line destined for active travel reclamation. Critical Mass shared a map of the expected route to Bluesky and elsewhere.
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https://buttondown.com/edi.bike/archive/issue-150-22nd-june-26/
Posted 1 month ago # -
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June Critical Mass coming up this Saturday!
Besides supporting the Powderhall Line campaign the ride will finish at the Edinburgh Climate Festival.
Amongst various activities you could win a Bike repair by cycling to power the stage!
See the full program here:http://www.edinburghclimatefestival.com
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https://bsky.app/profile/edcriticalmass.bsky.social/post/3moyiotofo227
Posted 1 month ago # -
Posted 1 month ago #
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wow. you guys really are powerful!
Posted 1 month ago # -
Pow!
Posted 1 month ago # -
Yesterday’s Critical Mass went to St’s Marks Park and heard Andy outline the history and gradual start/stop/restart development of the NEPN
FULL details in the piece here -
Also the next stage(s) being Powderhall to Piershill
He told over 100 CMers that it could be much more than ‘just’ an Active Travel route (which CEC don’t, currently, see as a priority)
Posted 1 month ago # -
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Saturday saw Edinburgh Critical Mass head out along and around the proposed route, stopping at St. Mark’s Park to hear about the history of the North Edinburgh Path Network and Powderhall Link project from historian and campaigner Andy Arthur.
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https://buttondown.com/edi.bike/archive/issue-151-29th-june-26/
Posted 1 month ago # -
Posted 1 month ago #
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Saw on Facebook a person who doesn’t even own a bike and was punting CM as a good thing. Lot of comments of a deleterious nature. Many asking why we didn’t use the leith walk cycle lane. Ha ha ha. Another asking why we were fat. Another who appeared to be an angry disabled person on crack. Another claiming we are funded by a Marxist Millionaire. Do take care out there folks.
Posted 1 month ago # -
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Fresh campaign for green corridor
Chris Hill and Andy Arthur’s new website (www.Powderhall.Link) campaigns for creation of a long anticpated green travel corridor between St Mark’s Park and Lochend … and beyond.
Below, Hill explains the context.
In April, the SNP launched its manifesto. I was very surprised and pleased to read: ‘We will also support efforts to bring the former Powderhall railway line into use as a new walking and cycling route in the capital.’
Spurtle readers will recall that the line has been out of use for 10 years. In that time, the Council has been ‘in negotiations’ with Network Rail. How often they talk, or what about, is not public.
Newly re-elected MSP Ben Macpherson recently told the Sunday National, ‘I look forward to working with all the bodies involved to make this happen sooner rather than later.’
Transport Scotland says it’s aware of the manifesto commitment but that it’s up to the Council to develop and prioritise projects, then apply for Scottish Govt funding.
The Powderhall Link should be much more than just an Active Travel route between the North Edinburgh Path Network and points east. Opening this route would allow people (especially those in nearby flats) to access green space and local destinations more easily.
But the same old problems persist. Network Rail still owns the land. DB Cargo UK has a contract to operate freight services until 2119. Uncertainty remains about bridges, structures and liabilities.
The SNP must do more to act on its manifesto words.
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P3Posted 1 month ago # -
Posted 1 month ago #
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Never mind stolen AI slop. Sounds like we need a CCE mission to explore the line and “steal” back access
Posted 4 weeks ago # -
I’d be interested in ‘legal opinion’ about access to a public asset.
There is no danger from trains
There is a degree of danger from Giant Hogweed
There is marginal danger from things falling off poorly maintained bridges
There are trip hazards
Sounds a bit like the countryside or the Water of Leith Walkway (etc)
Posted 4 weeks ago # -
The thing that’s notable from the status quo is that while it remains a railway, it is exempt from right to roam / right of access. So a good question would be - as far as that right of access, what makes it a railway? Is it
- Being owned by Network Rail Scotland
- Having rail tracks
- Some form of operational designation
- …other?
Perhaps we should noise up Cycle Law Scotland…
Posted 4 weeks ago # -
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Today Network Rail has responded to a Freedom of Information enquiry by Andy of the Powderhall.Link campaign
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https://powderhall.link/2026/07/08/nr-confirms-all-p-l-for-sale/
Posted 3 weeks ago # -
What are CEC saying then?
Posted 3 weeks ago # -
Some comments -
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A spokesperson for Edinburgh cycling campaign edi.bike said,
“We’ve heard from the Transport Convener that we’re in the ‘delivery phase’ of Edinburgh’s transport transformation - but according to the 2025 Walking and Cycling Index, the city managed to deliver just one mile of off-road and two miles of protected on-road cycleway in the two years prior. The Powderhall Link represents not only an opportunity to extend the long-established North Edinburgh Path Network and provide a safe and convenient east-west walking and cycling route, but to do so in an uncontested and near ready-made space. It’s the very definition of an ‘easy win’ once the land is handed over, and it’s astonishing that it’s been ten years since any rail traffic on the line and it’s still at the negotiating table.”
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Powderhall.Link campaigner and local historian Andy Arthur said
“I’m just disappointed how little progress has been made in the last decade.
“I sat in meetings in the Council’s HQ 10 years ago talking about getting the Link between The North Edinburgh Path Network and Lochend Park opened up for public use.”
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…
Get It On
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Marc Bolan
Posted 3 weeks ago # -
If Network Rail removed the fence and rails tomorrow, what would be the response of DB Cargo?
Posted 3 weeks ago # -
did Andy Kap bother FOI ing the council?
So far Netwrk Rail sound happy to sell
Posted 3 weeks ago # -
They were FOIed a couple of years ago by (not known)
Several years of emails released
A sad tale with little light
The NR response is ‘fresh’ and finally indicates they want rid of the lot
Logically obvious but they have previously said ‘but DB Cargo have a lease into next century’ - really! and (paraphrase) ‘it’s up to CEC’
At this point FOI to CEC would be performative (and tie up more officer time)
Things are moving, another FOI shouldn’t be necessary
Nothing is certain, timescales unpredictable
2027 is 50 years of Spokes
Powderhall.Link progress will also be worth celebrating -
Write to your MSPs and Cllrs
As Richard Rogers wrote 30 years ago -
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Our transport and environmental engineers Ove Arup and Partners calculated that our broader mix of activities and greater emphasis on public transport could reduce the need for car journeys and thus roads by as much as 60 per cent. The balance between single-use road space and multi-use public space could be altered in favour of the latter. We vastly expanded the network of pedestrian-biased streets, cycle paths, market places and avenues, and made room for a substantial park. This network of public spaces sought to enable the 'open-minded cultural activities of the city. It was carefully interwoven with the public transport system to make a single, interconnected web of public space and movement that started at the citizen's front door and led ultimately, via car parks, buses and trams, to stations and airports. A flexible hierarchy of different modes of transport, ranging from safe sidewalks to high-speed trains and planes, afforded seamless mobility for all citizens.…
Most of our public parks, squares and avenues are bequeathed to us from previous centuries. In this modern age of democracy one would expect many more important additions to the public realm, but in fact our contribution appears to be the erosion of these spaces by traffic and personal greed. The public realm is being restricted by the overbearing presence of security, the imposition of entrance fees to cultural institutions, the decline of public amenities and the dominance of the car, which reduces public spaces to narrow pavements. And buildings are being designed as if they were standalone objects, rather than elements that enclose and shape the public realm.
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From Cities for a small planet
Posted 3 weeks ago # -
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The places I am most drawn to are dense networks: the North Edinburgh Path Network, riverside shortcuts, burns, and hidden glens. The Burdiehouse Burn Walkway, which takes you through picturesque Ellen’s Glen, is a particularly underappreciated route. The gentle Figgate Burn from Duddingston towards Portobello is another. These are well-used paths that rarely make guidebooks but are rich in atmosphere and easy to reach. The routes often connect in unexpected ways, creating journeys that feel like private discoveries even when walked by locals every day. Finding something that has always been there but largely overlooked brings a particular kind of satisfaction.These paths are one of Edinburgh’s great assets. They preserve fragments of the city’s industrial past while offering quiet, useful routes for everyday life; a generous gift from the past to the present. They make the city layered and surprising: even when popular spots are crowded, something peaceful is usually only a short walk away. A different Edinburgh sits just off the main routes. To walk these paths is not to turn your back on the city, but to know its other faces. And I will keep walking them because, after a lifetime on this ground, Herzog’s promise holds…
Keep your eyes open, and the world keeps showing itself.
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Posted 3 weeks ago # -
@chdot, this does resonate. After close to forty years of Stravaigin around Edinburgh’s byways even on Thursday afternoon I found a path out of Harrison Park I don’t think i knew about.
It was a very short path. Due to the bridge work ongoing in the Harrison Park area
I do not think it was the path that goes on from Dundee street for some distance in woods you don’t really realise are there and ends at the railway lines.
Rather upon exiting the North East corner of Harrison Park I spotted a path and a woman walking a wee dug. It was not promising as despite being a nice woodland path it stopped about fifty metres into the woods. But lo a gate into the new housing was deliberately open to allow access and I wended my way through to the colonies and out at the Brewery as was.
For anyone who has bothered to read this far this was because I had gone to the other Woods for my Glasgow Fair haircut. this Woods (barbers on Drummond Street sonce 1890) was stowed out the door. So I did not tarry. Instead I stravaiged on my bike in a semi conscious manner waiting to see which. Barber shop would fall out of the sky in south west Edinburgh. Low at Harrison Park I recalled that Sweary Jim ended his days at 246 Dalry Road. Mondays only. When the barbers of this shop called prosaically 246 we’re having a day off. Sweary Jim used to let me take my bike in but as the shop had three chairs on the go and was busy I chained the bike to a big bin. I entered and received a spectacularly good haircut off young Finlay.
Posted 3 weeks ago # -
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Unfortunately, over the past decade, Edinburgh's greenspaces have faced increasing pressures from the acceleration of urban developments, tourism and population numbers, and climate change events. These factors, together with declining budgets and resources, threaten our ability to maintain greenspaces to a high standard and we have already seen a marked decline in some of our greenspace infrastructure, such as park buildings, paths and walls, as well as increased maintenance issues such as Littering, erosion and anti-social behaviour. There is a real risk that our greenspaces will continue to decline and deteriorate in quality, which will impact on the citizens of Edinburgh and its visitors.
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Posted 3 weeks ago # -
Great piece -
https://theedinburghreporter.co.uk/2026/07/powderhall-railway-line-gains-momentum-after-snp-pledge/
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“On the Council, the Lib Dems have consistently pushed for safety improvements and biodiversity protection on the current path network, so that’s something I’d be keen to see embedded into any new plans from the start here.
“But there has been real grassroots and cross-party support to get this moving so I’m hopeful SNP, Labour, Green, Lib Dems, and Conservatives can continue to work constructively and pursue this for the city.”
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Jack Caldwell
Posted 2 weeks ago # -
(Same as Reporter piece)
Posted 2 weeks ago # -
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3.3 Powderhall railway path
A campaign has been launched to put new momentum behind plans to convert the disused Powderhall rail line into a walk/wheel/ cycle path between Lochend Park and St Marks Park, linking East Edinburgh into the North Edinburgh network.
At the Holyrood election, surprisingly, the SNP put support for this very local scheme into their Scotland manifesto. However, although local SNP MSP Ben Macpherson has expressed support for the scheme, and for the new campaign, there is no sign of new government funding. Council funding is probably unlikely in the near term, as the path would be competing with other active travel projects. There is also the slight possibility of volunteer work to do a basic (non-tarmac) initial conversion – as Spokes did long ago for the 1km ‘Pilton Path.’
The other holdup is ownership – Network Rail owns the land. However, they have confirmed in a FOI response to the new campaign that there are no intentions to reinstate rail use, and that they are “in discussion with Edinburgh Council about a sale for an Active travel project.”
If you live in Ben Macpherson’s constituency [Edinburgh North Eastern and Leith] please contact him to ask what he is doing to ensure the negotiations are completed soon, and that government funding will be available, given support for the project in the SNP Holyrood manifesto. Note: Ben is only likely to follow up if you are a constituent.
If you live elsewhere, but would use the route, do email your own MSPs
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https://www.spokes.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/2607-21-action-update.pdfPosted 1 week ago # -
Posted 4 days ago #
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Not quite the same sort of trail
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About this handbookThis small guide is for use on the ground, in the forests and mountains at the time a trail is being designed or built. It has been produced by Recreation Aotearoa in collaboration with the Department of Conservation, New Zealand Cycle Trails, ACC and Sport New Zealand.
“https://www.nzrecreation.org.nz/new-zealand-mountain-bike-trail-design-guidelines
Posted 2 days ago #
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