For centuries Dundee has had close links with communities on the south bank of the Tay and travel between Dundee and Fife has always been important. Today, traffic and weather conditions allowing, getting across the Tay is a relatively simple task, but things have not always been that way. Historically a trip to Fife from Dundee either involved going a very roundabout route to cross the Tay at Perth or making the crossing by boat. This could be dangerous as there was no regulated ferry system and some of the private boats which took people across had the reputation of being ill-suited to the task and having ill-disciplined crews. The sinking of one such boat in 1815 promoted change and in 1819 an act of parliament allowed the Dundee Harbour Trustees to run an authorised ferry system.
This led to the birth of the official Tay Ferries, which were known to generations as Fifies. They sailed from Dundee’s Craig Pier (now the location of RRS Discovery) to Newport (although in the early days some boats sailed to Woodhaven). Many well-known vessels operated the route over the years. Older Dundonians will remember the paddle steamers Sir William High and B. L. Nairn. The former entered service in 1924 with her almost identical sister vessel joining her five years later. In 1939 the larger and more modern M.V. Abercraig joined the fleet and Sir William High was relegated to back-up status. In 1951 M.V. Scotscraig, a sistership to Abercraig, entered service and Sir William High was sold off. It was now the B. L. Nairn’s turn to serve as the stand-by vessel, but she would end up seeing plenty of use over the next 15 years.
The last quarter of the nineteenth century saw a new way to get from Dundee to Fife – by rail. In 1848, the Edinburgh and Northern Railway had started rail ferries across the Tay between Ferry-Port-on Craig (Tayport) and Broughty Ferry. It was soon realised however that a railway bridge could greatly improve this service, but bridging the Tay estuary was no easy task and indeed was seen as beyond the boundaries of engineering at the time. However the idea continued: the North British Railway wanted to have a route to Dundee and Aberdeen that could challenge the rival Caledonian Railway, and for that bridging the Tay and Forth was essential. Equally Dundee businesses saw that a bridge could offer great commercial benefits. The first Tay Bridge was completed and opened in 1878 and was soon a success.
As well as providing for long distance traffic the bridge also linked Dundee to Tayport via Newport. This local line proved a valuable lifeline to those commuting between Fife and Dundee. Infamously the bridge had a short life. It collapsed in a storm in the evening of 28th December 1879. A train carrying at least 59 passengers and crew was crossing it and all were killed. Despite the tragedy, the concept of a bridge had been proven a success and work soon started on a replacement. The new bridge opened in 1887 and is still going strong. A station on the Tayport line was added at Wormit and the line thrived.
Thoughts now turned to a road bridge. In 1918 James Thomson, city architect, proposed building one on the remaining piers of the first Tay Railway Bridge, but the scheme, part of larger plan to rebuild to Dundee and revolutionise its transport links, got nowhere. However increasing road traffic meant the concept of a road bridge would be frequently talked about and in the 1930s a committee was formed of representatives from various local authorities to push the case. Cost and practicality however meant that little progress was made and World War Two pushed the idea out of the limelight. Yet it did not go away. By the 1950s local pressure for a bridge increased as the much greater volume of road traffic was more than the Fifies could handle, and the alternative was a lengthy detour via Perth. Work finally started in 1963 and the Tay Road Bridge was opened by Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother on 18 August 1966.
This marked the end of the Fifies and all three vessels were withdrawn the day the bridge opened. More controversially the railway to Tayport was also doomed by the new road link. Earlier in 1966 the line between Tayport and Newport had been severed due to works on the bridge and in 1969 it was decided the whole line should be closed as the road link to Dundee meant it was not needed. For the same reasons, it was also decided to close the line to St Andrews. Both of these closures have come to be seen as exceptionally short-sighted.
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