Many benefits to rail link in north

Published on Saturday 14 June 2008 19:42

WITH regard to the excellent leader titled 'A Bullet Train at a Snail's Pace' (Insight, June 1) and the issues referred to therein, your readers may like to know about a similar campaign which is gaining ground in the north of Scotland.

We in the Dornoch Rail Link Action Group are undertaking a campaign to achieve major strategic upgrades and journey time reductions on the Inverness – Thurso/ Wick line, as shown in our technical and modified STAG 1 appraisals on the Dornoch Rail Link, published earlier this year.

These studies prove that a 45 minute time reduction can be acheived by the Link alone, with further reductions on the existing line bringing Thurso - Inverness journey times to 2 hours 30 minutes.

Such improvements are recognised to achieve the greatest benefits, in camparison with competing road based schemes, in terms of moving freight from road to rail, increasing accessibility and reducing peripherality for regions such as Caithness and Sutherland.

These would have enormous benefits in meeting major challenges arising from the Dounreay rundown and also developing opportunities from increased tourist/ passenger traffic, faster and better freight connections for timber, oil, gas, fish and supermarket traffic and giving the people of the north a more fit for purpose, faster, integrated and better railway we can all be proud of.

This would enable trains to travel at speeds a lot faster there than is possible now.

In conclusion, it should be recognised that the Dornoch Rail Link has much greater and more tangible benefits for the economy of the far north than has previously been assessed in official studies published earlier, as shown in recent publicity concerning Freedom of Information disclosures.

Mark W Norton, Convener, Dornoch Rail LInk Action Group