The campaign for Borders Rail is set to hold its annual conference in Carlisle on Saturday, October 26.

This will be the campaign’s first major meeting since suffering a blow in September when the government announced that the Border Railway feasibility study had been put on hold whilst the government undertake their capital investment review.

The previous Conservative government allocated £10million in April 2023 for a feasibility study into extending the Borders Railways into Cumbria, finishing at Carlisle.

Campaigners have long fought for the line, which reopened in 2015, to be extended from its current terminus at Tweedbank down to Carlisle, via stations such as Longtown, Newcastleton, Hawick and St Boswells.

A recent report from the Borderlands Partnership, which is made up of the local authorities from across the region said that extending the Borders Railway to Carlisle would be the ‘best solution’ to help solve the area’s notorious transport connection difficulties.

The line was originally closed during the infamous Beeching Cuts in the 1960s and the area has been dogged by poor public transport links ever since.

For much of its length, campaigners say, the new line would reuse the disused alignment of the old Waverley Route.

Labour have put the brakes on a number of large-scale transport infrastructure projects since winning the election in July which the party says will help fix the ‘dire’ state of the public finances left by the Conservatives.

Speakers at the conference include Christian Wolmar who is a passionate advocate for railways and newly elected Labour MP for Carlisle, Julie Minns.

Julie Minns has previously met with the campaign for Borders Rail and called for ‘renewed energy’ in the project.

"I was pleased to meet with the Campaign for Borders Rail recently,” said Ms Minns at the time of the meeting.

“I think they are an impressive organisation who have put a lot of work into building support for extending the rail links across the border between Carlisle and Tweedbank.

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"I fully support their calls to press ahead with the feasibility study which was first promised in 2021 by the Borderlands Growth Deal. It is frustrating that delays were allowed to drag on by the Tory government in Westminster and SNP in Holyrood.

"We now have a chance to look at this with renewed energy. I would hope that Keir Starmer's commitment to resetting our relationship with the devolved Scottish government will allow us to make some progress in realising this opportunity."