Litany of broken promises on rail

Published on 17/06/2012 00:00

FULL credit for Scotland on Sunday’s exposure of the Scottish Government’s broken promises over plans to restore vital double track sections and essential passing loops on the Glasgow/Edinburgh-Inverness main line, whose absence will further weaken rail’s competitive credibility and reliability against an ever improving A9 road (News, 3 June).

Sly “deferral” of this promised railway improvement is symptomatic of similar cynical scrapping or downgrading of other previously planned rail modernisation projects, eg shrinking the Edinburgh Glasgow Improvement Programme (EGIP electrification) by downgrading the Cumbernauld commuter line, scrapping of planned rail links to Edinburgh and Glasgow Airports and halting the planned Aberdeen Crossrail commuter expansion project.

Previously well-developed plans for Glasgow Crossrail have similarly been discarded along with the potential commuter benefits from reopening Edinburgh’s suburban line.

Scottish Government calls for more capital investment in transport infrastructure are welcome, but seriously devalued by its selective abandonment of planned rail improvements essential to achieving major social/economic and environmental benefits within a more sustainable transport strategy.

Ken Sutherland, Bearsden, Glasgow

LAST week’s revelation that train services from Inverness to the south are slower than some years ago is not entirely surprising given that some now stop additionally at Bridge of Allan, Dunblane and Gleneagles. Is it just a cunning plan, slowing the trains down now, hoping that no-one will notice, and then in a year or two, speeding them up back to where they were originally, all to the sound of a rousing fanfare?

In addition, at the northern end of the route there is a proposal to reinstate a former section of double track, which would help to give more flexibility in the timetable, including additional freight services, such as the 200 or so loads per day carrying whisky traffic between the North of Scotland and the Central Belt, currently using the A9.

David Hodgson, Alloa