Border Union Railway

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title: "Border Union Railway" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["border-union-railway", "closed-railway-lines-in-scotland", "closed-railway-lines-in-north-west-england", "transport-in-the-scottish-borders", "rail-transport-in-cumbria", "transport-in-dumfries-and-galloway", "railway-companies-established-in-1859", "railway-lines-opened-in-1862", "railway-companies-disestablished-in-1922", "1859-establishments-in-england", "british-companies-established-in-1859", "british-companies-disestablished-in-1922"] description: "Also known as the Waverley route in Scottish and English borders" topic_path: "geography/united-kingdom" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Border_Union_Railway" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Also known as the Waverley route in Scottish and English borders ::

::data[format=table title="infobox rail line"]

Field	Value
name	Border Union Railway
locale	Dumfriesshire & Roxburghshire, Scotland;
Cumberland, England
open	21 July 1859
close	31 December 1922
event1label	Successor line
event1	London and North Eastern Railway
gauge
map
::

| name = Border Union Railway | locale = Dumfriesshire & Roxburghshire, Scotland; Cumberland, England | open = 21 July 1859 | close = 31 December 1922 | event1label = Successor line | event1 = London and North Eastern Railway | gauge = | map = | short_title = Border Union (North British) Railways Act 1859 | type = Act | parliament = Parliament of the United Kingdom | long_title = An Act to authorize the North British Railway Company to make a Railway from their Hawick Line to the Port Carlisle Railway near Carlisle, with divers Branches therefrom, and for other Purposes. | year = 1859 | citation = 22 & 23 Vict. c. xxiv | introduced_commons = | introduced_lords = | territorial_extent = | royal_assent = | commencement = | expiry_date = | repeal_date = | amends = | replaces = | amendments = | repealing_legislation = | related_legislation = | status = | legislation_history = | theyworkforyou = | millbankhansard = | original_text = | revised_text = | use_new_UK-LEG = | UK-LEG_title = | collapsed = yes The Border Union Railway was a railway line which connected places in the south of Scotland and Cumberland in England. It was authorised on 21 July 1859 by the Border Union (North British) Railways Act 1859 (22 & 23 Vict. c. xxiv) and advertised as the Waverley Route by the promoters—the North British Railway. It connected the Edinburgh and Hawick Railway at with .

History

The first section of the route was opened between Carlisle and Scotch Dyke on 12 October 1861, to Newcastleton on 1 March 1862, Riccarton Junction on 2 June 1862 and throughout on 24 June 1862. The railway was built as a double-track main line throughout.

Connections to other lines

• Edinburgh and Hawick Railway at
• Border Counties Railway at
• Caledonian Railway Main Line at Gretna
• Maryport and Carlisle Railway, Newcastle and Carlisle Railway, Midland Railway Settle and Carlisle Line and Lancaster and Carlisle Railway at Carlisle Citadel

Current operations

The line was closed to all traffic by British Railways on 5 January 1969. The line was dismantled in 1971.

The Waverley Route Heritage Association have preserved a part of the former route at Whitrope and are working on reopening the section from its base at Whitrope itself down into Riccarton Junction as a heritage railway.

References

Notes

Sources

References

1. Awdry (1990)
2. Matt Stoddon. (2005). ""About / Waverley Route Heritage Association"". WRHA.

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::