The Edinburgh Suburban and Southside Junction Railway (ES&SJR) was a railway company that built an east–west railway (known as the Edinburgh Suburban Line or more familiarly the Sub) on the southern margin of Edinburgh, Scotland, primarily to facilitate the operation of heavy goods and mineral traffic across the city. The line opened in 1884. Although its route was rural at the time, suburban development quickly caught up and passenger carryings on the line were buoyant; the passenger service operated on a circular basis through Edinburgh Waverley railway station.
Bus and tram competition hit the passenger service badly as the twentieth century progressed, and in 1962 the line closed to local passenger trains. It continues in use for freight traffic and diverted and excursion passenger trains.
There have frequently been proposals to reintroduce the local passenger service on the line, but there is no active commitment to do so.
History
Railway traffic through Edinburgh The Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway (E&GR) opened its main line in 1842 between Glasgow and the station at Edinburgh that became Haymarket, at the western margin of the city. It showed that longer-distance railways could be successful, and encouraged the idea of connecting central Scotland with England; the North British Railway (NBR) opened its line from the station at North Bridge in Edinburgh to Berwick (later known as Berwick-upon-Tweed) in 1846, and within a few weeks the opened an extension from Haymarket to its own station at North Bridge. There was a link for the transfer of wagons, but for the time being the two companies operated separate stations adjacent to one another.
Meanwhile, the Caledonian Railway was constructing its line from Edinburgh to Glasgow and Carlisle, running from Lothian Road station, and opening in 1847 - 1848. (The Caledonian later relocated to Princes Street station.)
The Caledonian line remained separate, and later a serious competitor, but the and the were obviously complementary. The North Bridge station was extremely rudimentary at first and the two companies collaborated in improving it and making a shared station, and it was later renamed Waverley Station. Nonetheless, the site was extremely cramped and for many years the accommodation was notoriously inadequate.
In 1865 the and the amalgamated, keeping the name North British Railway, and the opening of branch lines had led to substantially heavier traffic. The line through Waverley station was the only link between the lines east and west of Edinburgh.It was possible to exchange individual wagons between the and Caledonian systems at Granton. Mineral traffic increased considerably as the Lothian coalfield (south-east of Edinburgh) was developed, and much of the extracted mineral was consigned to the west of Scotland for shipment. All the goods and mineral traffic had to pass along the double track route from Portobello to Haymarket through Waverley station, finding a path between the increasingly frequent passenger services.A A Maclean, The Edinburgh Suburban and South Side Junction Railway, Oakwood Press, Usk, 2006,
First proposals
The congestion was obviously serious, with no apparent solution on the route through Waverley. The line lay in a valley between very high ground on an east–west alignment, and any railway by-passing Waverley would have to be aligned south of the volcanic plug that forms Salisbury Crags and Arthur's Seat. In 1865 the proposed a line from Haymarket to connect with the former Edinburgh and Dalkeith Railway near its terminus on the south side of the city. The Dalkeith line, now in control, connected near Niddrie (often spelt Niddry at the time) with the main line to Berwick and the Dalkeith route to the mineral fields. The Caledonian Railway too saw this as an opportunity to secure an advantage over its rival, and in the same year it too proposed a similar route from its own lines near Gorgie to Niddrie, intending to claim running powers over the lines to get access to the Lothian coal fields. However, neither of these schemes was progressed.
An act for the ES&SJR Over the following years the congestion and the difficulty of working through Waverley station increased further, and the proposed construction of the Forth Bridge from 1871, promising much more traffic to the at Edinburgh, intensified the perception that a resolution must be implemented. A parliamentary bill was prepared by the North British Railway, although the line was to be built by a nominally independent company.
The engineer Thomas Bouch was engaged to design a routeIt was his last railway; he died before the act of Parliament was obtained. from the complex of lines west of Haymarket to Portobello, and based on his work, an authorising act of Parliament for the Edinburgh Suburban and Southside Junction Railway was given royal assent as the (43 & 44 Vict. c. cxciv) on 26 August 1880.Southside was written as one word, not South Side.A MacLean, A History of the Railways in the Edinburgh District, Ravenswood, Edinburgh, 1991 The capital was to be £22,500, and the was to work the line for 50% of gross receipts.E F Carter, An Historical Geography of the Railways of the British Isles, Cassell, London, 1959John Thomas, The North British Railway, volume 2, David & Charles, Newton Abbot, 1975, David Ross, The North British Railway: A History, Stenlake Publishing Limited, Catrine, 2014,
The line was to be nearly in length from a triangular junction near Haymarket to a triangular junction near Portobello. Portobello was being developed at this time as a marshalling location for goods and mineral traffic destined for points west of Edinburgh; for the time being this included traffic for the train ferry at Granton. The Caledonian objected to the bill, and succeeded in getting three connecting spurs near Gorgie inserted into the act, although these were never constructed.
However the Tay Bridge disaster of December 1879 fatally undermined confidence in Bouch's work, and the proprietors of the new Company decided to have the engineering design of the line reviewed, and this was done by George Trimble.S Mullay, The Edinburgh Encyclopædia, Mainstream Publishing, Edinburgh, 1996 A revised bill was submitted to the 1882 session of Parliament and this gained royal assent as the (45 & 46 Vict. c. cxlvii) on 24 July 1882. Capital was £225,000. Instead of running independently to Portobello, the line was now to adopt the old Edinburgh and Dalkeith Railway route, and double the track, from near Duddingston to Niddrie, continuing to Portobello, and also provide additional spurs towards Dalkeith.
Although intended primarily for goods and mineral traffic, the topography of the route forced the inclusion of significant gradients, climbing at 1 in 88 westbound and 1 in 60 eastbound to Morningside. There was considered to be limited potential for local passenger traffic on the line; most of the route was remote and rural. It was hoped that the passenger traffic would build up over time.
Construction and opening Construction of the suburban line, conducted primarily by contractors John Waddell and Sons, began in August 1881. There were initially difficulties in agreeing the scope of the works, as the Company included station and other works beyond the scope in which Waddell had tendered. Nonetheless, the work proceeded satisfactorily, and it was anticipated that the line would be ready for the opening planned for the beginning of July 1884. However the roof of the tunnel under the Union Canal collapsed on 13 November 1883 causing alarm at first. The collapse turned out to be not as serious as at first thought, and the structure was stabilised by 20 December 1883.
The actual cost of the line was relatively low, although in 1882 the Merchant Company of Edinburgh (governors of George Watson's Hospital) presented the company with a claim for £23,368.10/-, to cover the cost of the land upon which the suburban line was being built, as well as rectification works.MacLean, History, page 68
On 1 October 1884 the directors felt ready to request the Board of Trade inspection that was necessary for opening to passenger traffic, but as that could not be arranged immediately, the Company opened the line for goods and mineral traffic on 31 October 1884. An inspection train for the officers of the North British Railway traversed the line on 16 October 1884.
Major Marindin of the Board of Trade inspected the line on 15 November 1884 and approved the line for passenger operation, and it duly opened to passengers on 1 December 1884.From Maclean, page 26; there is some difficulty about the date of the approval letter. He states that the Board of Trade wrote on 15 November but that the letter was received by the Company on 11 December, after the opening to passengers took place on 1 December 1884.
First operations
The heavy goods and mineral traffic was diverted to the line immediately. The passenger service was an hourly circular route from Waverley, referred to as the outer circle (clockwise) and the inner circle. Stations at first were provided at Duddingston, Newington, Blackford Hill, Morningside and Gorgie,Gorgie is omitted from MacLean's list of opening stations. and tickets were available in either direction, that is, intending passengers could catch the first train, whether inner or outer circle.
Station names were later changed and the route at Portobello varied. A basic additional platform was provided at Waverley to handle the trains, but it was not until a decade later that a more comprehensive facility was provided.
In accordance with the North British Railway's intention from the outset, the was absorbed by the effectively from 1 May 1885, ratified by the North British Railway Act 1885 (48 & 49 Vict. c. cxix) of 22 July 1885.
Passenger service developments The primary purpose of building the line had been the provision of a by-pass route for goods and mineral trains, but usage of the circle passenger service developed better than had been expected. Craiglockhart station on the suburban line was opened on 1 June 1887.
Suburban development was taking place elsewhere, and a curve was installed at Abbeyhill on the fork of the lines to Leith, opening on 1 October 1886. This enabled the suburban circle passenger trains to divert off the main line and make a station call at Abbeyhill from that date. A station was opened at Piershill on the Leith branch just off the main line, on 1 May 1891.W A C Smith and Paul Anderson, Edinburgh's Railways, Irwell Press, Caernarfon, 1995,
Craiglockhart station was closed temporarily from 1 May 1890 when a temporary station the other side of the Union Canal was opened in connection with the Edinburgh Exhibition of that year. Use of the original Craiglockhart station resumed on 1 January 1891.
Tramway competition Edinburgh's first trams were horse-drawn; they began operation on 6 November 1871, and ran between Haymarket and Leith. The following year saw the establishment of the circle route, which ran via Marchmont and Church Hill to the West End of Princes Street; the fare was one penny, or two pence for a return. In 1881 and 1882 steam engine hauled trams were tried out at Portobello, but they were unsuccessful. From 1888 cable operated trams were introduced: they were hauled by a wire rope in a conduit under the road surface.The cable system remained in use until 1922: Britain's largest and longest-lived cable tramway system. By the turn of the twentieth century, Edinburgh's cable car system had increased to include 200 cars, servicing 25 route-miles of track.