Settle-Carlisle Line - Current Situation

Current Situation

In recent years, due to congestion on the West Coast Main Line, much freight traffic is using the S&C once again. Coal from the Hunterston coal terminal in Scotland is carried to power stations in Yorkshire, and Gypsum is transported from Drax Power Station to Kirkby Thore. Major engineering work was needed to upgrade the line to the standards required for such heavy freight traffic and additional investment made to reduce the length of signal sections. In July 2009 work to stabilise a length of embankment near Kirkby Thore and remove a long-standing permanent speed restriction was undertaken. Local passenger traffic has increased, with eight stations closed in 1970 re-opening in 1986. Ribblehead station features a special visitor centre. The line is an important diversionary route from the West Coast Main Line during engineering works, but as it is not electrified, (unlike the West Coast Main Line), electric trains such as Pendolinos need to be hauled by a diesel locomotive (typically a Class 57 Thunderbird) along that section.

Anglo-Scottish expresses have not been fully restored. The former regional franchisee Arriva Trains Northern initiated a twice daily Leeds–Glasgow Central service in 1999 (calling at Settle, Appleby, Carlisle, Lockerbie and Motherwell), but this was withdrawn at the behest of the Strategic Rail Authority in 2003, and there remains no link from Yorkshire or the East Midlands to Glasgow over the line. The link from Lancashire operates on Sundays during the summer months for the benefit of ramblers under the DalesRail brand.

Passenger services are usually operated by Class 158 DMUs, although Class 153 and Class 156 units can also be used (the former to add additional capacity on certain services and the latter on the seasonal DalesRail trains from Preston and Blackpool). Class 142 and Class 144 units can make occasional appearances on the route, but only as short-notice replacements for the booked units or on transfer moves between depots. Class 150 units have also begun to appear occasionally (as substitutes for the booked 158s) since a batch of the units were transferred to Northern Rail from London Midland in the autumn of 2011.

In 2009 a statue of the collie, Ruswarp, (pronounced Russup), was sited on the platform of the refurbished Garsdale railway station. The commemorative sculpture, funded by public subscription, was made by sculptor Joel Walker and cast in bronze. It celebrates the saving of the railway line which was coordinated by the Friends of the Settle to Carlisle Line whose first secretary, Graham Nuttall, was a keen hillwalker and his companion dog Ruswarp famously signed the petition to save the line with his paw print. On 20 January 1990 Graham Nuttall went missing. He and Ruswarp had bought day return tickets from Burnley to Llandrindod Wells to go walking in the Welsh Mountains. But they never returned. Neighbours raised the alarm. Searches by police and mountain rescue teams in the Elan Valley and Rhayader found nothing. Then on 7 April 1990, a lone walker found Graham's body, by a mountain stream. Nearby was Ruswarp, so weak that the 14 year old dog had to be carried off the mountain. He had stayed with his master's body for eleven winter weeks. Ruswarp was cared for by a local vet-fees paid by the RSPCA, who quickly decided to award Ruswarp their Animal Medallion and collar for 'vigilance' and their Animal Plaque for 'intelligence and courage'. Ruswarp lived just long enough to attend Graham's funeral.

In May 2011 early morning services were reintroduced, with one train in each direction arriving in Leeds and Carlisle before 9am.