Rail link rallying

Almost every route in Scotland requires subsidy to cover the cost of dedicated infrastructure and the provision of a safe and civilised mode of transport.

There have been many  delays to delivery of the Borders Railway, but this project has  undoubtedly been a Scottish Parliament “guinea pig” for  re-opening a completely abandoned railway.

If it does prove to be “the most expensive railway in Scotland”, that’s no surprise – at 30.5 miles it will be the longest domestic line to have been built in Britain for 100 years.

And the Borders will no longer have the unwanted status as Britain’s only region without a train service.

The cost increases for the railway are little different from those suffered by other major infrastructure projects – and Brian Monteith is simply wrong to state that without the Borders Railway “there would have been no need to make engineering changes to Portobello junction”.

The upgrading of this key junction is an entirely separate project, driven largely by the needs of the East Coast Main Line and a mooted new train depot at Millerhill.

Previous rail re-openings in Scotland have been enormously successful, with patronage way beyond pre-construction estimates. The current official projection for the Borders Railway equates to just three passengers per train at Galashiels – a nonsensical figure, which is exceeded even by the dismal X95 bus service which today provides public transport from the  Borders to Edinburgh slower than it was in 1911.

If Brian Monteith had to endure that kind of “quality” of service, I suspect he would take a rather more constructive approach to this vital new piece of strategic rail infrastructure.

David Spaven

Author, Waverley Route: the life, death and rebirth of the Borders Railway