Better Local Rail Services

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

East Coast Mainline - High Speed Rail Link - Edinburgh to London

I believe that there should be a high speed rail link on the East Coast Mainline route connecting London-Leeds-Newcastle-Edinburgh and Glasgow with improvements in the lines to Inverness, Aberdeen and other Scottish towns with more dual tracking and extended electrification which should be started within the next five years.

This high-speed link, along with the other improvements would, bring many advantages for businesses, users and the environment by encouraging traffic from the roads. the time taken from the centre of Edinburgh to the centre of London using the high-speed link would be much less than travelling from the centre of Edinburgh to the airport and then flying to London and then onwards into the city centre.
I think this would save time, stress and damage to the environment. You just have to look at the system that they use in France, for example the TGV rail system from Paris to Lyon.

From now on all rail lines ie the tracks and rolling-stock should be built and developed within the UK in order to preserve and create jobs for British workers.

All the stations and trains should be made accessible by having a universal information system which can be used by blind and disabled people. All trains should have a standard layout for buttons.

This would give us an intergrated transport system which would be accessible to all and fit for the 21st century.