Thornton Community Council

07/06/2026

Another great day in Memorial Park for our community!

05/06/2026

THIS IS POSTED PURELY FOR COMMUNITY INFORMATION AND IS IN NO WAY ENDORSED BY THORNTON COMMUNITY COUNCIL.

OUR COMMUNITY, SPECIFICALLY OUR LOCAL BUSINESSES, WILL SUFFER SEVER DETRIMENT DUE TO THESE WORKS.

WE ARE BITTERLY DISAPPOINTED ABOUT THE LACK OF PLANNING, COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT OR REASONABLE MITIGATIONS NETWORK RAIL AND FIFE COUNCIL COULD HAVE PUT IN PLACE TO REDUCE THE IMPACT ON OUR COMMUNITY.

WE ENCOURAGE EVERYONE CONCERNED ABOUT THESE WORKS TO ATTEND AT 6PM ON WEDNESDAY, AS DETAILED BELOW ⬇️

Work on Thornton bridge to begin on 20 June

Temporary traffic lights and one lane closure, to allow Network Rail’s bridge replacement at Thornton, will begin on Saturday, 20 June 2026.

Work on the bridge, which was originally proposed to take 14 months and would involve a full closure of the bridge, will now be phased. The bridge will be fully closed for five and a half months and the rest of the work will be carried out under a one lane closure.

The work is part of a £311.5m investment to modernise the rail network in Fife and deliver new battery-electric trains, increased capacity, reliability and accessibility while reducing carbon emissions.
Network Rail submitted proposals to Fife Council in September 2025. Following community engagement, Network Rail paused the programme to listen and respond to concerns, developing a revised approach that better balanced reducing community impact whilst facilitating investment.

A revised programme keeps the road open longer through single-lane operations, shortens the period of full closure, and protects key local priorities including pedestrian and disabled access, public transport, safe routes to school and reducing businesses impact.

Following intense scrutiny by council officers and based on the costs supplied by Network Rail to install a temporary bridge, Fife Council have now accepted that the Temporary Traffic Restriction Order can go ahead.

We know this work will be disruptive and we apologise for the inconvenience. We remain committed to working with the local community across the period, and to keeping the programme under regular review, with a focus on reducing timelines and impacts further if at all possible.

👉 Find out more, including information on key dates, dates for single-lane operations and full closure, pedestrian and disabled access, public transport, safe routes to school and reducing businesses impact at https://scotlandsrailway.com/projects/fife-electrification

👉 Read the latest update from Fife Council at https://www.fife.gov.uk/news/2026/work-on-thornton-bridge-to-begin-on-20-june

📍 Network Rail and Fife Council will host a community update as follows:

Wednesday 10th June 2026 : Thornton Public Hall

3-5pm : Informal Drop-In Event : For smaller group discussions

6-7pm : Community Update : Broader community update

13/05/2026

****PARTY IN THE PARK UPDATE****

We’ve had a great demand for wristbands this year. We currently only have 35 left.

For the afternoon tea, we still have 15 tickets available. If you have any elderly neighbours that may like to come along, please let them know about it.

In all instances, please drop us a message and wristbands or tickets will be held for you to collect on the day.

13/05/2026

POSTED ON BEHALF OF NETWORK RAIL

SCOTLAND'S RAILWAY : THORNTON
As you're aware, on Thursday 9 April, in response to community concern, Network Rail confirmed that we would defer our programme start date at Thornton, part of a £342m investment programme in Fife and Borders rail, to enable us to listen carefully to the views of the local community, and make changes where possible.
On Thursday 16 April, we hosted the first Thornton Liaison Group. Thornton Community Council, Thornton Primary School PTA, elected members and representatives from local businesses further discussed the issues raised at the recent community meeting, including grouping these by themes.
Since then, Network Rail has concluded four days of investigative works which has helped us gain a greater knowledge about the number of utilities and their exact locations on the bridge, and met directly with Thornton Primary School.
We've held two further meetings with Fife Council, providing additional information as together we work constructively on options to mitigate local impacts whilst investing in Fife's railway. These include options to restrict and/or reduce the duration of the proposed road closure.
We want to ensure that we are providing clear and meaningful updates to the community and will look to arrange the next meeting of the Thornton Liaison Group once Fife Council have provided further feedback on our updated proposal.

08/05/2026

When you collect your FREE wristbands and tickets tomorrow, please try to bring something for our tombola! All funds raised will stay in your community!
Thornton Bowling Club are also happy to accept donations on Tuesdays during their warm welcome events. Thank you!

04/05/2026

Good article from Allan Crow

Why companies need to do better for communities before major road closures

01/05/2026

Network Rail wraps more checks to find alternative to 14-month Thornton road closure

29/04/2026

SHARED ON BEHALF OF NETWORK RAIL. Apologies this wasn’t posted yesterday.

Network Rail Community Update:

As part of our commitment to engage further with the Thornton community, on Thursday 16 April, Network Rail hosted the first Thornton Liaison Group meeting. Thornton Community Council, Thornton Primary School PTA, elected members and representatives from local businesses further discussed the issues raised at the recent community meeting, including options to restrict and/or reduce the duration of the proposed road closure.

Having agreed on the areas of focus, both Network Rail and Fife Council are working hard to find practical, deliverable solutions to the issues identified. We would like to thank the Thornton community for their time, ideas and constructive feedback as we continue to look at options designed to minimise disruption for this important bridge replacement work.

As we continue to examine alternative approaches, we have now concluded four days of further investigation works, which has helped us gain a greater knowledge about the number of utilities and their exact locations on the bridge. Thank you for your patience and understanding while this work was completed.
With work ongoing across Network Rail, Fife Council and our partners, we have taken the decision to hold the next Thornton Liaison Group meeting at a later date than we had originally planned, in order to finalise the wider details around potential changes to the work in Thornton.

We appreciate that many from the community are giving up their evenings to attend these meetings and we want to ensure that we are in a position to provide clear and informative updates on the programme for the bridge, the impact of this work and the steps taken by Network Rail and Fife Council to minimise disruption at our next meeting. Your community representatives, who form the Thornton Liaison Group have been notified about this change and we will be reaching out to them soon to confirm the rescheduled date.

Following the next meeting of Thornton Liaison Group, we will share updated information on our next community engagement event.