Scottish Borders Council steps up Reston station bid funding

The council has increased its funding offer to reopen Reston station

Scottish Borders Council has increased its funding offer towards reopening a rail station at Reston in Berwickshire.

The authority has given a commitment of £2.84m for the delivery of a local rail service between Edinburgh and Berwick-upon-Tweed.

Neighbouring East Lothian Council has also offered £3.44m for reopening a station at East Linton.

In 2014, the councils made a £3.1m joint offer towards the return of the stations on the East Coast Main Line.

That contribution was made up of £1.6m from the Scottish Borders authority and £1.5m from East Lothian.

Following design work undertaken by Network Rail, current estimates are £10.63m for a new station at Reston and £11.13m for a new station at East Linton.

The local authorities hope the Scottish government will provide 50% of the costs of both stations.

'Work closely'

Councillor Gordon Edgar said: "I am pleased that the council has been able to increase its offer to the Scottish government towards the delivery of Reston station, and we continue to work closely with partners to ensure this becomes a reality as soon as possible."

The increased offer was endorsed in private at a meeting of Scottish Borders Council's executive committee on Tuesday.

East Lothian Council met earlier this week and also agreed to increase its contribution.

The councils said that should the funding offers be accepted they would work with transport agency SEStran to submit a fresh bid to the Scottish Stations Fund to help complete the funding package.