Railway plans are ready to go

THE Scottish Government’s broken promise of a Glasgow Airport Rail Link (a high-profile “pledge” which helped secure the Commonwealth Games) and Transport Scotland’s mischievous “deferral” of the long-planned Crossrail link across Glasgow/central Scotland are the chief culprits in our disjointed and fragmented rail system which fails to offer a meaningful alternative to car commuting (“Spectators urged to use public transport to Games”, 16 June).

Successive studies have consistently confirmed that Crossrail offers a very robust business case, ticking all the social/economic and environment assessment boxes required.

Stage-one electrification of the existing 1.8-mile freight line across central Glasgow is a “shovel ready” and relatively inexpensive project, likely 
to be funded by Network 
Rail, and offering for the 
first time ever the major benefits of a direct coast-to-coast train service across central Scotland.

As demonstrated elsewhere in Britain, temporary stations can be quickly erected for Crossrail, giving easy access to other lines and still attainable in time for the 2014 Commonwealth Games.

Ken Sutherland, Bearsden