Service
The service includes the Edinburgh-Kirkcaldy stretch of the East Coast Main Line, which includes the world-famous Forth Bridge. On the Fife side, while this line hugs the coast, the circle is formed by a line from Inverkeithing that loops back round to Kirkcaldy by an inland route through the old Fife coalfield. Narrowly speaking, just this line could be called the Fife Circle.
There is a goods line connection from Dunfermline to Stirling via Longannet Power Station that rail campaigners would like to reopen to passengers, as it has already been between Stirling and Alloa. Coal trains that formerly crossed the Forth Bridge en route to Longannet Power Station are now rerouted by that line so that the bridge's maximum signalling capacity for trains can be used to increase the local passenger service. The line between Alloa and Dunfermline currently is not signalled for regular passenger services. The Fife Circle is a priority for present investment in new rolling stock. Its morning peak services can be notoriously overcrowded.
The operator is now First ScotRail. This is part of First Group, the same company as runs the South Queensferry-Edinburgh bus service 43 that the Fife Circle train parallels from Dalmeny station.
In 2000, a new station was opened in the expanding eastern suburbs of Dunfermline and given the name of Dunfermline Queen Margaret, after the nearby Queen Margaret hospital.
Read more about this topic: Fife Circle Line
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