Cutting travel time worth £40m to the economy

Published on Sunday 5 October 2008 21:58

SPEEDING up journeys between Scotland's two largest cities by 15 minutes would boost the country's economy by more than £40 million a year, a new study shows.

Consultant Atkins claims the benefit to Scottish GDP would be achieved by businesses making Edinburgh-Glasgow journeys saving time and improving productivity.

And the firm has warned the long-term focus for Scotland must be on economic expansion along such established transport corridors, rather than being dispersed more widely – a strategy that would help tackle climate change by cutting overall levels of travel.

Atkins came to its conclusions after basing its work on Department for Transport guidance.

The firm concluded that GDP would be boosted by 30m a year from productivity benefits, and by at least 10m a year from business time savings.

Ministers have already said that cutting rail journeys would provide economic benefits of 60m a minute. However, Atkins claimed this was based on the wider impact, not just on businesses.

John Stephens, Atkins director for economics and appraisal, told The Scotsman: "Increasing the opportunity for face-to-face business interactions is good for the economy and especially for smaller firms, but such interactions are dependent on greater mobility."

However, he added: "Over time, an increasing proportion of journeys must be by public transport to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, and the planning system needs to promote denser urban development in order to reduce the need to travel."

Atkins runs Traffic Scotland, the official trunk road traffic information service, and is involved in major projects such as the M74 extension in Glasgow and the city's airport rail link.

The Scottish Government plans to reduce journey times on the main Edinburgh-Glasgow rail line by nearly 15 minutes to 35 minutes through electrifying the route so trains can accelerate faster.

The project, to be completed by 2016, is expected to cost some 265m.

Ministers also plan to upgrade the final "missing link" section of the A8 dual carriageway to complete the M8 between the cities. The seven-mile scheme, just east of Glasgow, is expected to cut four minutes from driving times when it is completed in five years, at a cost of up to 210m. However, the final go-ahead is pending the results of a public inquiry.

Dr Jon Shaw, the director of the Centre for Sustainable Transport at Plymouth University who is an expert on Scottish transport, said spending money on cutting rail rather than road journeys was more cost-effective.

He said: "This kind of economic benefit is extremely welcome news and backs up the decision to electrify the Edinburgh-Glasgow link and speed up journey times.

"The A8 investment is also welcome, but really we need to promote rail journeys between Scotland's principal cities because this is best for the economy as well as the environment."

Shaw added: "New road capacity tends to fill up rather quickly and unless measures are taken to lock in the benefits, we could be back where we started regarding congestion in a short time."