30 October 2009
Railfuture Scotland news release: Glasgow City Council support for GARL and Crossrail
RAILFUTURE SCOTLAND
PRESS NOTICE
Railfuture Scotland welcomes Glasgow City Council's decison, taken at its full Council Meeting, Thursday 29 October 2009, to reaffirm total support for the Glasgow Airport Rail Link and the Glasgow Crossrail project.
The full text of the approved motion is:
'This Council condemns the decision by the SNP Scottish Government to cancel the Glasgow Airport Rail Link and considers that the case for Glasgow Crossrail, which would benefit many thousands of existing and potential rail users, is now overwhelming, given economic and environmental priorities which the SNP Government claims to support'
The first part of this now agreed motion was proposed by Councillor Alistair Watson (Labour) with an amendment [commencing and] proposed by Councillor Martha Wardrop (Green) and accepted by Councillor Watson.
Although support for both the Glasgow Airport Rail Link (GARL) and the Crossrail Link across central Glasgow, had previously been policy of Glasgow City Council, this further restatement /reconsolidation of the Council's desire to achieve both projects is now particularly significant in the context of two recent Scottish Government actions:
(1) Exclusion of the long-planned Glasgow Airport Rail Link from the SNP Scottish Government's Draft Budget statement of September 2009. However this Draft Budget, prepared by the current SNP minority Governemnt still has to be approved by the full Scottish Parliament. It is possible that collective action by the Holyrood Opposition parties could unite around a Budget amendment requiring reinstatement of GARL in an agreed Budget, which will be decided in early 2010.
(2) Exclusion of the long-planned Crossrail link from Transport Scotland's Strategic Transport Projects Review (STPR) of December 2008.
Although lying wholly within Glasgow, completing this short Crossrail route is realised as having far wider significance as 'Scotland's missing link' for the more extensive travel benefits it would deliever to communities across the wider Scottish rail network.
Although Glasow City Council do not have any direct responsiblity for delivery of GARL or Crossrail, reaffirmation of support for both projects gives significant encouragement and confidence towards pursuaul of similar objectives by a wide range of political / business / industrial / academic-transport study /trades union and community groups.
Those also include Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT) whose website petition in support of achieving Crossrail, now carries substantial evidence of cross-party political support for Crossrail. Strong cross party political support for achieving [Glasgow] Crossrail is similarly evident with representation on the Holyrood Parliament's Crossrail Cross Party Committee.
Such collective expressions of support for GARL and Crossrail, from widely divergent sources, is hugely significant, and potentially influential, with the ultimate decision makers (Scottish Government/Scottish Parliament in association with Transport Scotland and Network Rail) in delivering those two items of 'unfinished business'
Both GARL and Glasgow Crossrail have already been proven as 'good value for public money' by the rigorous criteria used in Scottish Transport Appraisal Guidelines (STAG) assessment process.
Ken Sutherland
Railfuture Scotland
(0141-942-0194)