North Berwick Line

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.

North Berwick Line
The terminus of the line at North Berwick
Overview
TypeCommuter rail
Regional rail
Heavy rail
SystemNational Rail
LocaleEdinburgh / East Lothian, Scotland
TerminiEdinburgh Waverley
North Berwick
Stations8
Operation
OwnerNetwork Rail
Operator(s)Abellio ScotRail
Depot(s)
Rolling stockClass 170 "Turbostar"
Class 380 "Desiro"
Class 385
Technical
Number of tracksDouble-track from Waverley to Drem
Single-track from Drem to North Berwick
Track gauge1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in)
Electrification25 kV 50 Hz AC
North Berwick Line
Shotts Line, North Clyde Line,
Edinburgh–Aberdeen line, Fife Circle Line,
Glasgow–Edinburgh via Falkirk line
& Glasgow–Edinburgh via Carstairs line
 Edinburgh Waverley
(
St Andrew
Square
)
Borders Railway
to Tweedbank
 Musselburgh
 Wallyford
 Prestonpans
 Longniddry
 Drem
 North Berwick
 East Linton
(proposed)
 Dunbar
 Reston
(proposed)
East Coast Main Line
to Newcastle

The section between Drem and Edinburgh Waverley shares the track with the London North Eastern Railway London Kings Cross - Edinburgh Waverley service. It consists of all or part of the following Network Rail routes:

  • SC 147 from Edinburgh Waverley
  • SC 149 from Drem Junction to North Berwick

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 two services per 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. When the Saturday daytime services to Dunbar by Scotrail was introduced in December 2012, the Class 170 "Turbostar" regularly took on these services. Following the Borders Railway construction in September 2015, the Class 158 "Express Sprinter" took over the Dunbar Services. In the December 2017 timetable, the Class 380 took over services to Dunbar on Saturdays which then got replaced by Class 385s in the December 2018 timetable. The class 170 can also sometimes run to North Berwick because of ScotRail's lack of EMUs based in Edinburgh particularly during peak times.

In September 2018, ScotRail services on the North Berwick Line have started using the new Class 385 units. Services are formed of six coaches (two 3-car units).

Historical route

As with many contemporary routes, trains on this line run on the metals of several historical routes:

See also
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