Had a guy from Sustrans tell me this evening that it was 100% down to them. He was adamant. Specifically the NEPN, but 'all of it'.
I didn't think that was the case, but didn't know enough to be sure.
Hive-mind, please enlighten me.
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Infrastructure
Who turned the rail-tracks into cycle-paths ?
(78 posts)-
Posted 5 years ago #
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Some history of Spokes' involvement here:
http://www.spokes.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Decade-boards-01-FINAL-web.pdf
Posted 5 years ago # -
I can tell you that the Dava Way from Grantown to Forres ain't nothing to do with Sustrans. Speyside way also.
The Sustrans canvassers are, if I understood correctly, just chuggers doing the spiel they're paid to do. I told the lady who stopped me on the Meadows that she had been misinformed.
Posted 5 years ago # -
@iainmcr, was the guy also asking u to donate to Sustrans? I like to ring my bell at these charity muggers in a cheery way. Go Sustrans. But i already donate to them through the income tax I pay as do you and any other tax payers.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Grimshaw right
Probably 19821986
Posted 5 years ago # -
Is that Dave DuFeu on the left? Great picture. Perfect mood of the era.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Definitely @DdF on the left, aye.
Posted 5 years ago # -
“
The photo shows a site meeting in 1986 when Sustrans came to Edinburgh to help SPOKES volunteers create the Pilton Path (since replaced by the approach road to the Waterfront – SPOKES made sure that the Red Bridge over Ferry Road was constructed). On the right is Sustrans ‘boss’ John Grimshaw on the left is Dave du Feu, founder member of SPOKES, in the middle is an MEP and a future Leader of City of Edinburgh Council.
“
Posted 5 years ago # -
Is there a map of where the Pilton Path went? was it removed when the red bridge was constructed?
Posted 5 years ago # -
Was this a full Sustrans Scotland member of staff, a Sustrans volunteer, or a paid fundraiser?
Posted 5 years ago # -
was it removed when the red bridge was constructed?
West Granton Access is a relatively recent construction. Before it we had the Pilton path that went from the junction at Ferry Road northwards along the trackbed of the LMSR's Granton Branch as far as West Granton Road. The red bridge came after the original railway bridges were removed (following line closure) and nearly not replaced. The Pilton path was directly connected with the route from Roseburn to Leith. I last cycled it in September 2001.
North of West Granton Road, though, the trackbed was overgrown but passable, It more or less followed the north-east path we have now, but curved around to the east at Waterfront Avenue and emerged just to the north of the scrappy at West Harbour Road. The old goods shed still stands, and you can see the original alignment, now very overgrown. My 1996 Spokes map shows it very clearly.
Dave du Feu and friends are standing somewhat south of where the petrol station at Morrisons now is. The small cottage in the background, behind JG's head, is Granton gasworks station.
Posted 5 years ago # -
"It more or less followed the north-east path we have now, but curved around to the east at Waterfront Avenue and emerged just to the north of the scrappy at West Harbour Road. The old goods shed still stands, and you can see the original alignment"
Interesting. Why has the alignment continued to be protected? For tram potential?
Posted 5 years ago # -
The council's atlas has various old maps and aerial imagery, which makes it easy to see how Edinburgh's changed over time. Click the 4 squares in the top right corner to see the options:
The old path is marked on the 1997 map.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Thanks,
@Frenchy, a very useful resource which I have directed people to in the past. The 2000 aerial imagery shows the Granton Access under construction and a very red bridge in place.
@Jonty, Thanks, also very useful. I have a selection of older paper maps but it's much easier not to have to unfold them.
Posted 5 years ago # -
I always thought the 'red bridge' was the brick one. Doh!
Posted 5 years ago # -
@IWRATS, every day a school day, the red bridge is the red one
A similar one could go over various roads to link paths but guess pricey
Posted 5 years ago # -
Where is the John Lewis bridge? I wanted it installed over the railway behind your accordionist's house.
Posted 5 years ago # -
“Where is the John Lewis bridge?”
The one that used to be in Bonnington?
Posted 5 years ago # -
Posted 5 years ago #
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@IWRATS, I think my accordionist is not going to be happy now
technically I am her singer, though she sings a lot better than me
Posted 5 years ago # -
Oh God does she read CCE? I'm a dead man.
Posted 5 years ago # -
She doesn't so you are OK, oh wait, I copied it to her, you are dead
Posted 5 years ago # -
Sustrans was fairly small in the 1980s, not the juggernaut it is today. It was known as a path-building organisation.
This is some from some info I pulled together for Spokes’s 40th anniversary.
"A big transformation of cycling in Edinburgh and the Lothians came with Lothian Regional Council's purchase in 1981 of disused railway lines from British Rail, although the initial aim was to preserve them as future transport corridors – possibly road, busway or cycleway.
Spokes set up a new Railways group to press for early conversion to cycleways, and also persuaded the Council to commission a report from John Grimshaw on their potential as an initial widespread cycling/walking network. This report was produced at the same time as his all-Scotland report and both provided major blueprints for developments over the next several years.
The Warriston/Leith line opened and in 1982 the stretch of the Innocent Railway between the St Leonards tunnel and Duddingston Road West was opened …. The Innocent Railway was at that time a scenic leisure route of limited distance, best suited for teaching children to cycle rather than part of the useful long-distance commuting route it is now.
Railway routes continued to be built though the railway paths were still seen as for walkers only. Two Spokes members were thrown off railway paths by the police. Also, many cyclists did not know of the existence of the paths. Spokes lobbied for better signage. ..In 1984 Davidsons Mains was opened; work on Craigleith/Crewe Toll and Corstophine/Balgreen was begun. Plans were submitted for Roseburn/Craigleith construction. The Roseburn section was under threat though from the proposed building of the Western Relief Road, taking the West Approach Road through to Ferry Road.
John Grimshaw’s Scottish Railway Path and Cycle Route report and his Lothian report came out in 1985. The latter identified 250km of disused line in the Edinburgh and the Lothians. In addition to railway paths the report proposed various minor and major road routes, forming a network estimated to cost £2.3 million (cf proposed Western Relief Road, at £37 million).
With the crucial assistance of early supporter Cllr Donald Gorrie, Spokes obtained permission and funding for materials to build the 1km 'Pilton Path' on a disused rail line. John Grimshaw managed the entire construction project in one week, with Spokes providing extensive volunteer labour. The route providing a link from the North Edinburgh Path Network to the Cramond foreshore, and was opened by Cllr Muir, Vice-Chair of Lothian Region’s Transportation committee with the Edinburgh Nor’ Loch Highland Pipe Band... The Roseburn section of this cycleway was no longer under threat as the newly elected Labour Lothian Regional Council cancelled the Western Relief Road.”Posted 5 years ago # -
Wow - I didn't realise it was that close to becoming a road. Not quite as bad as the motorway-on-stilts through the Meadows but would still be a huge loss.
Or, to look at it another way, imagine if the whole WAR was actually cycle paths! Perhaps if the council had started consulting on the current cycle path plans just after the road had been built they might have been just about ready to start construction now.
Posted 5 years ago # -
@jonty The Council leader at the time was Alistair Darling. I've loved him ever since. I live hard by the NEPN at the Roseburn end.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Seems like almost the entire NEPN was purchased, planned and built in less time than the current council have been consulting on Canal-Meadows (other consultant cash cows are available). Can LRC please be reconstituted?
Posted 5 years ago # -
I was the local engineer on this project, having become Sustrans first employee (through the Community Programme funding in November 1985, when we started work on the Loch Lonomd Cycleway with teams from Dumbarton Council and the Volunteer Centre in Glasgow.
The history of cycle routes on disused railways goes back to the High Peak and Tissington Trails created through the inspired efforts of Richard Hutchings, County Solicitor for Derbyshire, but also a key architect of the National Parks Act, trustee of the (Herbert) Gatliff Hebridean Hostels Trust, and creator of QWACRS (a 5000 mile network of Quiet Wind (and hill) Assisted Cycle Routes for older and less able cyclists) first privately published edition 1986.
Richards efforts were reinforced by the 1971 report by Countryside Commission for Scotland, which reviewed the abandoned railways, still with largely intact wayleaves, and ranked their value as long distance routes for walking and cycling. I think Jan Fladmark and John MacKay had hands in that.
Cyclebag in Bristol, was the early iteration of Sustrans path building, and having recently finished building the Moelwyn Deviation on the Ffestinniog Railway, Grimshaw guided volunteers, with whatever material could be obtained at least cost, to blind the ballast, clean and repair drainage along the old S&D/Midland Railway line between Bristol and Bath (Green Park) - he got a commission from DETR to produce a report on Railway Paths and Cycle Routes, with detailing on how paths could be constructed alongside live railway lines and across rough ground, with simple light construction, appropriate for cycle and pedestrian traffic. A similar project was secured in Scotland, and Lothian Council (Richard Williams?) funded a further set of reports on Safe Routes to School, which came out in 1984-85. This latter project saw some early action to keep moving motor traffic out of school grounds when children were arriving, leaving and outside for breaks.
Prior to starting in Scotland I worked on the Kennet & Avon towpath enhancement (a project sponsored by British Waterways which wasn't 'officially' a cycle route given their policy on cycling at this time) and the York to Selby path.
A load more to tell of the highs and lows, and how in the early days it was a challenge of negotiating for materials and access to create the routes, building a low cost drybound macadam - but to a high standard so that it remained usable in all weathers and 'proved' the need for a path, sufficient to justify a return later with tarmac where appropriate.
Posted 5 years ago # -
@Tulyar, thanks for this historical detail. The force is strong with you young Padwan
Posted 5 years ago # -
So fascinating, thanks. Sounds very alien in an era where a new cut-through now seems to require feasibility studies, two consultations and a tendering process.
Posted 5 years ago #
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