CBR has worked closely with the Waverley Route Trust, which was founded in 2002 as a registered company with charitable status to promote the case for a 'community railway' to and through the Borders, and to facilitate innovative rail solutions nationally.

In 2004, the Trust commissioned Corus Rail Infrastructure Services consultancy to undertake a study of ‘Delivering an Innovative Borders Railway’. The Corus report recommended that the ownership of the railway infrastructure be vested in a local company or trust rather than Network Rail. Corus proposed that the operational control and maintenance of infrastructure (and marketing of rail services to and from Edinburgh) be focused on a rail operations centre in the Borders, providing a strong base for the future expansion of the railway to Hawick.

Together with other voluntary organisations (including CBR and Stow Community Council) the Trust has since played a valuable role in helping to secure a number of significant improvements to the specification of the railway, including:

• reduction of Tweedbank-Edinburgh journey times to 55 minutes
• incorporation of a well-located Stow station in the railway specification
• an innovative (non Network Rail) approach to the construction, operation and maintenance of the line infrastructure.

The Trust now plans to commission further work to build on the visionary references in Transport Scotland's December 2009 Pre-qualification Document, and specifically to assess the scope for a number of affordable enhancement measures to facilitate passenger charter and freight traffic – plus the use of trains to lay track and ballast for the new railway as it is built through Midlothian to the Borders.

For more information on the Waverley Route Trust, please contact David Spaven on 0131-221-9019.