This train is long overdue. When services were axed to the Fife resort town of Leven in 1969 they also severed the rail link into the tourist temptations of the fishing villages in Fife’s East Neuk.
On Sunday 2 June, they were brought back into action with much fanfare, reconnecting the East Neuk and raising hopes of regeneration in Leven. This is the first new railway line in Scotland for almost a decade and cost £116m to bring back to life.
I was on the first ScotRail passenger service from Edinburgh to Leven, and the two-car train was packed with notepad-toting rail enthusiasts and curious locals.
It’s a spectacular journey that cranks into gear crossing the Forth Bridge, that great red iron Victorian levitation that surged from the tumultuous waters in 1890. The train skirted the Forth’s northern shores, with views opening up across to Edinburgh as I scanned for cetaceans.
A train on the new link (Photo: Angus Duncan/ScotRail)
Then we left the main line to join the new Levenmouth Rail Link, eight miles of freshly-laid track east of Kirkcaldy that includes two new stations. The smooth rails eased through a tree-lined route: the Forth shimmered on one flank, the volcanic hulk of Largo Law on the fringes of the East Neuk on the other. Half a dozen wind turbines vaulted above the abandoned coalfields, signs of renewal alongside the Highland cow-dappled fields of this fertile corner of Scotland.
We were greeted in Leven, 69 minutes after leaving Edinburgh Waverley, by a toot from one of the steam trains at the Fife Heritage Railway, which has vintage locomotives that shunt around the adjacent tracks.
Ross Bennett, treasurer of the Levenmouth Rail Campaign, which was instrumental in bringing back the new trains, smiled as he surveyed the new station. “It’s a delight to see trains again. It’s given Leven a boost.”
He gave the Heritage Railway next door as an example. It is expanding into the Network Rail base used during construction of the new railway.
The new station platform at Leven (Photo: Angus Duncan/ScotRail)
Co-ordinated efforts are working towards making sure the new line – on which there are 37 trains a day (and almost double that next year) – is a success. Leven station has electric vehicle charging and bike storage racks by a cycle and walkway, which runs down to Leven’s 2km-long sandy beach.
I wandered down it, thinking about the days when Glaswegians took their summer holidays here. The romance of this period is immortalised by local artist Jack Vettriano in his 1992 painting The Singing Butler – a couple, dressed in formal wear, dancing on the beach under umbrellas.
There was a tangible buzz on the beach. Wild swimmers were out in force and a yoga group was making moves on the sand. Postie was enjoying the sea air and attention. He is a microcosm of Leven’s determination to push on from the industrial decline of the 1980s. The statue was part of a temporary art trail, but the community clubbed together to keep their beloved oversized Scottie dog for good.
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More positivity hung on the salty air amid the squawking gulls around Leven’s compact core. Artisan coffee roaster Colliers sits close to an old-fashioned butcher and a fishmonger. I heard news of a new taco bar, Italian restaurant and a whisky and gin haunt; an optometrist is being reborn as a cocktail bar.
On the high street, a flurry of stalls welcomed our arrival. Sam Green of community environmental regeneration charity Clear beamed from behind a feast of community orchard apple juice, jams and chutneys. “It’s a joy to see things growing. The train will bring in more businesses and employment,” he told me.
Community is a buzzword here. The Together Levenmouth project had stalls set outside its Tardis-like hub. Inside it packs in a café (coffee and cake with change from £5), crazy golf and an escape room. All profits are ploughed back into the community. One of its volunteers said: “What benefits Leven benefits us all.”
Investment is filtering out along the coastline too. New bus services scoot off from Leven station into the more gentrified East Neuk. Phil Clark, the project manager of Levenmouth Reconnected, said the aim is to connect Levenmouth – the towns of Leven, Methil and Buckhaven on the banks of the River Leven – and deeper into Fife: “We’ve got £15m of government funding for developing active travel, the most ever spent in Scotland on a community this size. This was the largest community [in Scotland] without a rail link.”
The coastline in Elie (Photo: Dennis Barnes/Getty Images)
While the villages west of Leven have lesser-known charms, Fife’s big hitters tempt visitors east. From Leven’s beach, I peered into the East Neuk, a sweeping beach walk away along the Fife Coastal Path. It cuts through Levenmouth to the eastern fringes of Fife. I’ve walked it several times and always meet more gannets and seals than people.
Those empty sands lead to the village of Elie – its clean, golden beach is home to a sauna and the only UK cricket team with a home ground on sand. It’s overlooked by the excellent Ship Inn, where you can wash down local langoustines with a Fife craft ale from St Andrews.
If Elie has the airy feel of a well-to-do holiday escape, so do its siblings: Anstruther, with its award-winning fish and chip shops, pretty Pittenweem and relatively unsung St Monans ripple with beaches, artist studios and fresh seafood. In the extreme east, Crail is a final flourish, before the path turns north towards St Andrews. You can now make a loop from Edinburgh via Leven that reconnects with the rail network again at Leuchars for St Andrews, then back to the capital.
I ended my journey on Elie’s beach with a dip in the Forth followed by a session in the Elie Seaside Sauna. Owner Judith Dunlop said: “I’m looking at opening another sauna – and that just wouldn’t have happened without the new train connecting us all again.”
Getting there ScotRail trains serve Leven from Edinburgh in around an hour. Return fares from £13.60.
