Plan is a let-down

WHILe I have no big problem with the Scottish Government’s decision (your report, 5 July) to retain the current four trains per hour each way between
Edinburgh and Glasgow via Falkirk High (rather than increase this number to six), I very much regret the abandonment of the planned Dalmeny chord and Winchburgh flyover, the construction of which would have allowed trains to and from the west to serve the proposed train/tram interchange at Gogar 
(Edinburgh Gateway).

Interchange with the tram will still be possible at 
Edinburgh Park for those travelling to and from Glasgow, 
Stirling and points north – but the transport minister’s 
announcement means that the operational flexibility which the Dalmeny chord and Winchburgh flyover would have 
afforded will no longer be 
available.

This is especially disappointing given that these elements of the Edinburgh Glasgow Improvement Programme (EGIP) compensated to some degree for the cancellation by the Scottish Government in 2007 of the Edinburgh Airport Rail Link (EARL) which would, more beneficially, have provided (via a station at Edinburgh Airport) 
direct links between the Glasgow and Fife lines to the west of the capital. If EARL is now long dead, EGIP is now a pale shadow of what was promised.

In fact, it really doesn’t amount now to very much at all. It thus is singularly unfortunate that the minister announced these changes with some fanfare – for Scotland is ill-served by this decision.

As your editorial rightly stated, EGIP is now a “damp squib”.

Lawrence Marshall

Capital Rail Action Group

King’s Road

Edinburgh