Transport

September 15, 2009 Dave No comments

The Transport Group’s aim is to make it easier to get about in and around the NHTT area, stretching from Edentown to Fernie. And do this without increasing our impact on the environment.

Safe, direct and easy routes between our villages, and to our local service centres of Ladybank and Cupar, are what we are prioritising.
We are now delivering the first construction phase of this ambitious project about rural alternatives to car use. The project is described below.

Phase 1 of the Paths to Transition Project

The construction project has been running since April 2011. The project comprises the building 2km of all-abilities paths in 3 locations, together with bike parking facilities at 5 locations.

Path Construction

The work on paths moved forward quickly once we appointed a contractor (Gilmartin) in late September 2011.

The path improvements focussed on two routes:

Collessie to Ladybank along Core Path 183. Two sections improved.
Letham to Fernie (and on to Cupar) via a new shortcut on Core Path 352. One entire route section improved.

See Core Paths website for maps of these and other routes.

All 3 sections of path are now substantially complete with only signage and a bit of snagging to do.

The pictures below show the situation before and after at a few locations. Firstly at Cairnfield Muir just north of Ladybank.

Cairnfield Muir south BEFORE

Cairnfield Muir south AFTER

Cairnfield Muir north BEFORE

Cairnfield Muir north AFTER

A further section at Gaddon Loch is also complete.

New route follows railway at Gaddon Loch

At Gaddon Loch, the new path and fences mean that some access will be maintained year round, even during the ‘closed season’ when birds are breeding. Where the new path has been constructed, it runs far enough away from the lochside so as not to disturb the breeding birds. The whole Core Path route runs near the railway from Collessie down to Birns Farm and on to Ladybank, though not all of this has been improved yet.

Trainee at work on Cairnfield path

Trainee

The project is also bringing other community benefits, by taking on local unemployed people for work experience and training. Ryan, a 19 year old man from Ladybank worked with contractors Gilmartin, learning the trade.

Bridge Building

Further north, the Letham to Fernie route is still under construction, and will not be open until the end of May 2012. The main item still to install is a foot bridge over Cunnoquhie Burn. The bridge is also a community project, in which bridgemaker Malcolm Strong works with a group of volunteers. He has taken taking them through the process, starting with a sawlog of Douglas Fir and ending with a beautiful handmade bridge. The timber was Perthshire grown and was sawn locally at Scottish Sawmilling Services by Newburgh, before being treated at Prestons of Ladybank. Throughout the project we have tried to keep the money in the local economy by procuring materials and services locally.

6m Douglas Fir sawlog selected for the bridge

Dennis saws log into bridge elements

Bow of Fife bike locker and hoops behind Bus Shelter

Bike Parking

The idea for bike parking was to provide safe and tidy parking at transport nodes. We want to make it easy for people to cycle to these places. We consider transport nodes to be places where you can readily catch a bus or take your lift that has been pre-arranged in a car sharing scheme such as Tripshare Fife

Bike parking has been installed at the following locations:

Bow of Fife: Hoops and one bike locker
Letham Hall (for Letham Road End and the Hall): Hoops
Collessie Trafalgar Junction: Hoops at bus shelter
Giffordtown Hall (for neighbouring bus stops and lifts, as well as Hall): Hoops
Ladybank A92 Bus stop (busstops are disused and car sharers can stop here): Hoops and bike locker

Acknowledgements

Thanks to landowners and land managers for their great co-operation that has enabled all of this to happen. Thanks also to our funders as below.

Promotion of Car Sharing: Tripsharing

One element of our ‘rural alternatives to car use’ theme, is promoting car sharing. Formal schemes exist that allow an organised and secure lift to be offered or taken. A fixed mileage payment can also be made so that both parties win financially by sharing the costs of the journey. Its all worked out for you at car sharing sites such as TripShare Fife.

We are promoting car sharing by our mobile banner parked in fields beside main roads, by bike locker livery, by other signage and through our dedicated resources website tripsharing.org At that site there are also links to other useful stuff like Core Path Maps.

Other Projects Still in Development

Phase 2 of the Paths to Transition project

There are still sections needed to be upgraded to complete even a basic network. We continue to negotiate with landowners to secure agreement for a further phase of the project. For more details please contact Crispin Hayes on 0845 458 8335

TripStop -we will carry out some feasibility work around whether the community is interested in informal car sharing from stops like bus stops, we’ve called them ‘Trip-stops’. If this idea is one that is popular we would look for money to put such facilities in place. A project profile for TripStop is available here

We have tied all work done together in the Development Stage which concluded in late 2010, into one final report which can be downloaded below.

CCF Funded Feasibility Stage FINAL REPORT

Transport Group Meetings

Get Involved- We meet every couple months or as demand calls. If you would like to find out more about the Transport Group come along to our next meeting. Contact Crispin on 0845 458 8335