Leader: Time to stop Borders folly in its tracks

THE essence of any bidding process is that there must be bidders, plural, with competition helping to drive down the price to the benefit of whoever is offering the contact.

The decision by construction company Carillion to pull out of the IMCD group, one of the two remaining consortia bidding for the Borders Rail Link, casts a serious doubt over whether there will be competition for this scheme.

The precedents are not good. Last year US rail firm Fluor withdrew from one of the then three groups shortlisted, cutting competition to two. Without Carillion, IMDC's bid is similarly threatened. With the prospect of one remaining bidder, the inappropriately named BAM group, will come the danger it will find a way of forcing up the 300 million bill that the taxpayer will have to meet.

We have said many times the idea of the Border link was ill-conceived, agreed as it was in pork barrel politics by Labour to assuage the Liberal Democrats, who were strong in the Borders, and carried on by the SNP, which has taken seats there. Studies of likely passenger numbers taking the slow train to Galashields have not been robust, with little evidence of viable demand beyond Midlothian.

The Scottish Government will point to the so-called "Mastermind" clause in the legislation to set up the rail ink: once it was started, as it was by SNP ministers before the election, it had to be finished. But what parliament has done can surely be undone. Now is the time to call a halt to what is set to become a costly white elephant.