In partnership with
Progress
The Campaign so far
2024
BSTS Submitted
After months of hard work, the Buchan Sustainable Transport Study has now been submitted to the Scottish Government for analysis.
Stay Tuned! Read here.
June 2024
2023
September 2023
AECOM and Stantec were appointed to the task of undertaking the JTF funded feasibility study examining the case for reconnecting Buchan to the East coast line.
Feasibility Study gets going
Summer 2023
Months of work setting up our feasibility study is now coming together. Soon, work will commence on examining potenital new rail connections in Buchan. Stay tuned...
Setting up the feasibility study
Summer 2023
Community Engagement
CNER meet with Mintlaw Community Council. In our continuing effort to engage with the community, we were invited to speak and had a very in depth and positive discussion.
July 2023
CNER were invited to, and spoke at Railfuture's 2023 AGM. Thorough, detailed discussion on the proposals and we gained a lot of advice from experienced campaigners in the room. Positive day!
Railfuture Scotland
March 2023
CNER and AGCC lobbied during the SNP leadership election and received a notable response from the elected Humza Yousaf. CNER hope to hold the FM to his word and meet with Humza at a future date,
Response from Humza Yousaf
March 2023
CNER attended Scotrail's Regional Roundtable. We submitted a document of thoughts from the community and established some connections in the industry, You can read our submission on here.
Regional Roundtable
Feb 2023
Regular meetings on with the Just Transition Fund commence. In attendance was AGCC, Transport Scotland, JTF, NESTRANS and CNER. This marked the beginning of the feasibility study process.
Study Setup Begins
Jan 2023
CNER advocated for intervention on the tunnels in Aberdeen. These tunnels limit the capacity of rail traffic north of Aberdeen, but also the type of freight that can be carried. Read more about it here.
Aberdeen Rail Tunnel Upgrades
Speaking in the Scottish Parli
CNER were invited to speak on the efficacy of the Just Transition Fund before the Economy and Fair Work Committee. Watch what was said here.
November 2023
2022
Dec 2022
Disappointingly, STPR2 would be published without Buchan Rail. However, ministers would state in the chamber that this fact does not prevent Buchan Rail from progressing outwith STPR2.
Final STPR2 report is published
Sep 2022
CNER were awarded Just Transition Funding. Our application was successful and we were awarded a significant bout of funding for our feasibility study. This event catapulted our campaign forward!
CNER Awarded JTF Funding
Aug 2022
Karen Adam MSP and Maggie Chapman MSP organised a successful public meeting in Peterhead which had the room packed. This really demonstrated to us the enthusiasm for new railways.
Peterhead Public Meeting
July 2022
At an event at Brewdog HQ, CNER launched a flythough video that visulises our proposals. This was a smash hit at the event, and we believe it is one of the best tools for visualising the plans. Watch here.
Video Flythrough Published
July 2022
At an event at Brewdog HQ, CNER presented to a packed house of business and community leaders. Also speaking was MD of Scotland's Railway, Alex Hynes. This event was organised and funded by AGCC.
AGCC/Brewdog Event
June 2022
Transport Minister Jenny Gilruth MSP, visited CNER in Dyce. We took her in the front cab, before taking a walk down the line to discuss the proposals and transport problems in the area.
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Transport Minister Visits CNER
May 2022
As the Fraserburgh to Peterhead bus route was voted worst in Scotland, the Press & Journal publish another great article on CNER's proposals. You can read the article here.
Worst Bus Route in Scotland
April 2022
CNER spoke at an AGCC event in which options for spending the £500m Just Transition Funding were discussed. CNER's proposals came top of the poll of attendees at the event.
Just Transition Event
Jan 2022
The first of what would be many great articles about us in the Press and Journal, we continue to enjoy a good relationship with them, and many other news organisations.
Press & Journal Coverage
Jan 2022
The Strategic Transport Projects Review (2) is a document that sets Scottish Government investment priorities for the next 20 years. Buchan Rail was unfortunately excluded.
STPR2 Published
2021
Nov 2021
COP26 arrives in Glasgow, highlighting the many changes in regards to climate policy over the past few years. CNER spent this period pointing out that trasnport is the UK's biggest source of CO2.
COP 26 Glasgow
Oct 2021
CNER appeared on STV news with Brandon Cook The piece covers a lot of our arguments, and demonstrated positivity in the community about the idea.
TV News Coverage
Oct 2021
The SNP/Greens Cooperation Agreement passed. Contained within was a commitment to reinvestigating rail links for Ellon, Fraserburgh and Peterhead, the establishment of the Just Transition Fund, and a commitment to reviewing the STAG criteria so it better aligns with climate targets. All excellent for our campaign's prospects.
SNP-Green Deal
Summer 2021
CNER met with all 13 of our MSPs to discuss our ambitions and share thoughts on next steps. These meetings were productive and very positive. In this period we also met NESTRANS for the first time.
Meetings!
May 2021
CNER lobbied throughout the SP21 election, when the votes were counted, 10 of the 13 MSPs had pledged their support. Great result. Further commitments were secured after the election too!
Scottish Parliament Election
April 9th 2021
With the pandemic still ongoing, CNER launched online on April 9th 2021. We had nothing but our White Paper, a website and some graphics. At this stage there were only two of us working on the campaign! We spent that day doing interview after interview on our campaign, Radio, Newspaper, and even STV news. Then, the world heard of the death of Prince Phillip, and, understandably, we lost all of that coverage. Despite this setback, we still achieved over 200 responses to our petition on that first day! We would go on to relaunch the campaign a week later, thankfully, this coverage went ahead as planned.