The Friends of the Far North Line
Cairdean Na Loine Tuath
the campaign group for rail north of
Inverness - lobbying for improved services for the local user, tourist and freight
operator
Our 2025 AGM & Conference took place on Friday 4 July in The Norseman Hotel in Wick. The date was not as originally planned because of the very welcome major work being done on the FNL in June.
With Network Rail having such a high profile on the FNL because of the blockade it was perhaps appropriate that two of our three speakers were from NR. We had the amusing, and honestly unintentional, occurrence of all the speakers sharing the surname Ross!
FoFNL policy is to hold the event in a different place each year, and the further north we go, the more concerning it is that fewer people will get there. We needn't have worried as there was only one fewer attendee than in Inverness last year.
It's easy just to accept how slow the rail journeys in the Highlands are, but a visit to Wick is a great reminder that in the time it would take a Wick resident to travel by train to Glasgow, a London resident could get there and back.
We were well looked-after by the hotel, and the usual IT difficulties were overcome (with help from Hannah Ross's son at one point).
Your convener has noted that a sound amplification system really is a necessity on these occasions, and will take the required steps in the future.
Because the event was matched to the train times we couldn't begin the AGM until 12:00, so the conference began after lunch.
We were treated to three very interesting talks. Hannah Ross, CEO of Scottish Rail Holdings, opened with a detailed account of SRH's role in the Scottish railway industry. It was a day for statistics, and Hannah presented this slide, which shows what a large operation SRH oversees.
As your resident pedant, I can't resist mentioning that the 'Americanism' "Train Station" grates, but the figures are impressive.
Hannah outlined her view of the future of the Scottish rail industry, and it was not surprising to learn that the establishment of Great British Railways has opened a lot of, so far, unanswered questions. We know that Transport Scotland is liaising with the English Department for Transport and expect that it will take some time to sort out how Scotland's Railway will fit. One of Hannah's bullet points contained the thorny question of "Ownership of Infrastructure vs other assets in Scotland".
In the Q&A session after Hannah's talk, Bill Reeve - Transport Scotland's Director of Rail, who was in the audience - delivered a gentle reminder to FoFNL that we should remember to give credit for the extremely large amount of money which is spent each year on Scotland's railways. I think it's fair to say, that when talking about what we think the FNL and the other Highlands railways need, we are always pointing out the deficiencies - that's part of our job - and we probably do appear to take the Scottish Government's expenditure on rail for granted. We are fortunate indeed in this, but that mustn't stop us from making the case for where some of the money should be spent, especially when at the same time huge sums are being allocated by the government to unnecessary road improvements.
The two Network Rail speakers, Lee Ross, Infrastructure Maintenance Delivery Manager, Perth; and Alan Ross, Director Engineering and Asset Management, gave detailed accounts of their respective roles and the work they oversee.
Some of the figures are quite astonishing, and reminded us of the complexity of running a safe railway and meeting the challenges of ageing structures and equipment, and the weather.
This is the part of the industry which the public rarely sees, or is aware of - we'd soon notice if it weren't carried out properly though. As you look at Lee's figures [right], remember that these are just for the railways covered by the Perth Delivery Unit.
Both Lee and Alan talked about the major work done on the Far North Line in June and the benefits it brings to the resilience and comfort of the railway.
Alan showed an interesting slide about Network Rail's analysis of passengers' use of the FNL, which finds eight discrete markets [below].
As 2025 marks the 40th anniversary of the introduction of RETB on the Far North Line (having been installed on the Kyle Line the previous year), Alan also talked about how this works, and brought some examples of the equipment with him.
All three sets of slides are available from this issue's companion page.
As a 'thank you' to our excellent speakers each was presented with a box of chocolates from Caithness Chocolate, a Wick company. A visit to their website is a tantalising experience!
Held on 4 July 2025, 12:00 at Norseman Hotel, Wick, Caithness
11 apologies received - recorded with sederunt.
1 Welcome
Ian Budd, Convener, welcomed members to Wick for the AGM.
2 AGM Minutes
The Minutes of the previous AGM, held in Inverness on 22 June 2024, had been circulated. No objections or amendments had been received.
Adoption of AGM 2024 Minutes:
3 Reports
Reports by Convener, Membership Secretary and Treasurer had been circulated in advance of the meeting, and questions were invited.
Ian Budd outlined his annual report which will also be featured in the FNE.
David Start explained current issues relevant to the accounts. In answer to a question about whether to consider becoming a registered charity, he advised against this due to added responsibilities and greater complexity.
Adoption of accounts:4 Election of Officers
Convener - Ian Budd
Secretary - Vacancy - to be filled at a later date.
Treasurer - David Start
Membership Secretary - Richard Mansfield
Newsletter Editor - Ian Budd
5 Election of Committee
Colin Alston
Ken Thomson
Iain MacDonald
Les Turner
6 AOB
Ian Budd expressed thanks to Neil Wallace, who was standing down as Secretary after over 5 years, having recently been elected Chair of the Scottish Association for Public Transport.
The meeting closed at 12:35 after some general discussion.
My sincere apologies to Neil - when I was drawing up the list of election candidates, and being aware that he was standing down as secretary, I forgot that I needed to include him on the list of committee members. The committee has now co-opted Neil until the next AGM.
The twelve months since the last Convener's Report have been especially eventful and there is clear interest in, and support for, the Far North Line.
Before covering some of those events, I wish to pay tribute to two members of our committee who passed away recently:
Malcolm Wood was our secretary from 2014 until 2019, and during this time, as well as fulfilling his secretarial duties, he responded to the Far North Line's poor reputation for timekeeping by keeping detailed weekly records of FNL train service lateness and cancellation from October 2016 until lockdown in 2020. This was an invaluable resource for us when we needed to back up our campaigning for improved infrastructure on the line. Even through the final stages of his illness Malcolm stayed on the committee and made a point of attending last year's AGM.
Angus Stewart was FoFNL's membership secretary for 24 years, i.e. for most of the group's existence. This is a vital and sometimes difficult task, which Angus ran with great efficiency right up to being admitted to hospital in January. Angus' special interest was freight and it's a great disappointment that he didn't live to see the resurgence of freight on the Far North Line which we all hope and wish for. I would like to thank Richard Mansfield for agreeing to take over the membership mantle, and I will be asking you to confirm him as Membership Secretary during our AGM.
On a happier note, 2024 marked the 150th anniversary of the completion of the railway from Helmsdale to Thurso and Wick. This was to have been celebrated on the actual date in July but industrial action on the railway put paid to that. Perhaps this was a blessing in disguise as the change of plan also changed how we marked the occasion and I believe the end result had a greater impact.
We compiled a photographic exhibition jointly with the Highland Railway Society, the Scottish Association for Public Transport (which had been responsible for 1974's centenary celebration) and the Far North Line Community Rail Partnership. Along with history and description of the line there were two panels dedicated to the work of two photographers who live near the FNL - Niall Laybourne and Peter Moore. They both take beautiful pictures of trains passing through the wonderful scenery.
The exhibition was displayed for a few days in three places - Thurso's North Coast Visitor Centre, Inverness Library, and Dingwall Community Library. Many people visited the exhibition which was very well received.
In November we finally had the chance to unveil a 150th anniversary plaque in Wick station. This was provided by Network Rail and unveiled by our president, Jamie Stone MP. We also displayed the exhibition in the station that day to mark the occasion.
The last year has seen two important contributions to our campaigning. In December The Highland Council passed a motion unopposed, which basically stated that THC must become more vocal in pressing the Scottish Government to invest in the Highland railways so that "The Highlands [must] have fit for purpose railway connections".
The second important contribution was the publication of a study carried out by Strathclyde University's Department of Marketing to look at the reasons people choose not to use the train. The work was commissioned by FoFNL in conjunction with Network Rail and ScotRail and was particularly attractive to the two rail organisations as they don't normally have much information from people who never use the Far North Line.
Since the publication of the study three members of the university lecturing staff, including Dr Davis who organised and carried out the work, have become involved in working out ways to use the study's findings to bring the railway more to the forefront of the minds of those who live in, work in or visit the north of Scotland. There will be more news on this later in the year.
As usual, various meetings have been arranged to enable discussion about how the FNL can be improved, including with Hannah Ross, CEO of Scottish Rail Holdings, who is speaking today; Mark Ilderton, ScotRail's Service Delivery Director; Matt Powell, Network Rail's Head of Sponsorship, and Alasdair Smart, ScotRail's Tourism Manager.
There have also been site visits to the Inverness Signalling Centre; Inverness TMD, to view the installation work for the high-speed broadband trial and to a section of track near Brora to view the £11.5m track repair and renewal project in action.
Our magazine, which as well as being sent to all our members, goes to around 150 people in the 'rail universe' and the political world, continues to gain recognition in high places. Alex Hynes, who was Scotland's Railway's Managing Director and is now Director General, Rail Services Group in the DfT; and Roger Ford, the influential and highly respected columnist in Modern Railways magazine have both tweeted photos of their newly-arrived copy, along with lovely comments about how much they enjoy reading it.
So far, no mention in this report of the 'stasis' that has gripped our railway's prospects of improvement for several years. There are some small signs that this may change, but nothing definite yet...
I'd like to conclude by thanking two people who have agreed to join our committee, subject to confirmation today, Colin Alston and Ken Thomson. We are looking forward to working with them, and in fact Colin and I have already attended a meeting, mentioned above, with Network Rail.
Finally I'd like to congratulate our secretary, Neil Wallace, on being elected to succeed the estimable Dr John McCormick as Chair of the Scottish Association for Public Transport. John held that position for an astonishing 38 years! Thankfully Neil has agreed to remain on our committee, providing a very useful link between us and SAPT, but unsurprisingly he intends to relinquish his FoFNL office at the AGM.
Members will be familiar with the name of Angus Stewart with his very long period as Membership Secretary. His death in January
2025 resulted in my appointment as Acting Membership Secretary for us.
The renewal of members with the new year was a busy time for my initial admin duties. Paying in a considerable number of cheques to our Bank at Eastgate, Inverness was interesting! It was a pleasure to meet with some of the staff who I engaged with. On the third visit to the bank over several weeks I was on good terms with the staff and procedures with "Bank Giro Credit Slips".I am now aware there of a charge of 50p for each cheque being paid in to the bank. I was conscious of a small queue forming behind me during the paying-in process. Patience was necessary - the staff member appeared to be unfamiliar with this system of working or with the volume of cheques.
In my role it has been interesting to note the far and wide interest of the railway from Inverness to the Far North. We are blessed with all parts of the UK and people from abroad showing interest in what we are: 'Friends' of FNL.
I would like to thank everyone who I have engaged with in the first six months in this role. I thank Ian Budd and David Start for the assistance they have provided for me, and you as members for your interest and support.