Transform Scotland, the sustainable transport alliance, has expressed its support for the ‘Fast Track Scotland’ high-speed rail plans being launched by the Scottish Government.
Transform Scotland is a signatory to the document.
Transform Scotland spokesperson Paul Tetlaw commented:
“We support the case for high speed rail links from England to Scotland. This could bring about significant modal shifts from the car and the plane to the train.
“Anglo-Scottish high-speed rail services could help us meet important environmental targets by knocking out carbon-intensive short-haul flights from Scotland to London.
“The clear challenges posed by climate change and depleting world oil supplies means that we need to improve both capacity and journey times by rail.
“We need rail investment as climate change targets start to bite and oil becomes more scarce and more expensive.
“The existing rail network does not have the capacity for the growth that will be required in the future for journeys from Scotland to London, the Midlands and the North of England.
“New lines and upgrades to existing routes are clearly required.”
Sort out the existing GLC – CAR route to remove slacks and fundamentally sort out CAR – 3 hrs to London on existing alignment with existing trains running to full 140mph design speeds where possible (other slacks at Penrith, Oxenholme, Preston, Wigan, Warrington, Crewe, Stadfford & Norton Bridge).Â
With the ECML actually entering Edinburgh with London trains – from the North East quadrant and going via Dunbar almost as far North as Edinburgh, the option of restoring a route branching off at Tweedmouth or Reston using existing abandoned routes might make sense, especially as there are at least 3 abandoned sections of the East Coast route between the Border and Eyemouth – the most obvious being used as a caravan site where the alignment has not fallen into the sea. Launching inland at Coldstream would use the fast and straight (and former prizewinning track) and link to Berwick as a main destination (albeit on the South side of the Tweed), and offer the option to put the traffic on to part of the Borders railway route on its approach to Edinburgh, noting from past experience that two cross border routes allow at least one to close for maintenance or a disruptive event, and a local service route (like the G&SW and Midland at Carlisle permit diversion and slow train paths for freight, albeit with the vulnerability of all having to pass through the ‘choke’ of Carlisle Station on just 2 tracks (which could be widened to 4) Â