Firstly we welcome the opening of the Bathgate Airdrie link and the line from Edinburgh to Helensburgh as this will change peoples lives in the future by joining up communities. It is hoped that the new Scottish Government can look positively at reopening stations and the lines that were closed down in the late sixties and there should be a timetable to do this over the next parliamentary term. They should also look at the following stations'Reston in BerwickshireEast Linton in East LothianNewbury in FifeGorgie, Abbeyhill and Portobello in Edinburgh and
It is hoped that they can reopen the South suburban line and join this up with the Fife circle line. The trains would do a figure of eight outer circle and inner circle. There should also be a connection between Edinburgh and St Andrews.During the festival they should see if they can run later services to Newcastle, Carlisle, Dundee, Stirling, Glasgow and all other stations in the central belt. At the moment the last direct train leaves London Kingscross at 6 pm and this should be put back to 7 30 pm or even 8 pm. More should be done to reduce the time to less than four hours on the east coast line. The high speed service on the west coast line could serve Edinburgh as well as Glasgow from Euston via Preston, Carlisle to Edinburgh during the peak period. This would not cost much and would save a considerable amount of travelling time from the centre of London to the centre of Edinburgh. A faster service would appeal to potential travellers who may otherwise opt to use the airlines.
The high speed link between London and Scotland is said to be with us by 2032-46. More should be done to bring Scotland into the 21st century on accessible rail travel. All these points should be taken into consideration by the Scottish government in co-operation with the UK Government.
Alex Scott MBE
