Sadly this seems unlikely to be commercially viable. Compared with most reopening schemes, the populations are quite small, and the main centre for the region is Dundee, in a very different direction. Forum member Altnabreac has formulated 5 golden rules for a successful rail reopening:
- Population of 10,000+ {I think Brechin is quite a bit smaller than that}
- 60 minutes (75 at a push) journey time of a major employment centre. {and of course many people work some distance from the station in that major employment centre, adding substantially to travel time}
- Extant or mainly unobstructed trackbed {probably not a big issue}
- Ability to extend an existing service so more terminal capacity is not required. {diverting Montrose terminators may not be welcome}
- Regeneration potential of a deprived area {not really an issue}
Perhaps you could apply these principles and your local knowledge to the issue, and come back on here with your thoughts?
I'd perhaps disagree with this. Some of these criteria are a little subjective and others depend what you class as the major centre for the region. While they may be classed as Angus, Brechin and Montrose are in the orbit of both Dundee and Aberdeen.
If you consider Aberdeen the regional centre, and note the current slower trains (currently terminating at Montrose) take just under 50 minutes to travel from Aberdeen down to Montrose, roughly 60 minutes to Brechin seems plausible. The downside is relatively few services on the Inverurie - Montrose route mean you'd not really have a good service at Brechin. It also looks like the connection faces the wrong way which means trains would either have to reverse at Montrose (not ideal on quite a busy line) or avoid Montrose altogether (probably even less ideal as it's a fairly significant town).
I'd also disagree with you about deprivation. Eastern Brechin, which is near the station, is quite deprived. Generally these sorts of rural small towns do better on deprivation indices than they "should" - it would be difficult to call Brechin an affluent town. The railway could also unlock population expansion - at the moment Brechin is a little short of the 10,000 population threshold (at about 7,000) but it looks to have a fair amount of room to grow.
The practicalities of running on a current heritage line may be insurmountable, and the fact the line looks to be to the north of Montrose makes an Aberdeen connection trickier, but on paper I don't think it's a terrible idea.
