22 September 2008
Rail service improvements welcomed
Commenting on the Scottish Government announcement on
improvements to the ScotRail network commencing in December this year, Transform Scotland Director Colin Howden said:
"A reduction of ten minutes in the Edinburgh-Aberdeen journey time is welcome but long-overdue. Recent decades have seen massive government expenditure on the parallel A90 which has damaged rail's competitiveness in terms of journey times. It is welcome that the Scottish Government is now belatedly taking action to redress the balance in favour of rail."Perth has for some time suffered from a rather infrequent service, often with substantial gaps between services. So the provision of an hourly service between Edinburgh and Perth is a major improvement. Now something needs to be done about the journey time which remains uncompetitive with car travel."
Amongst other things, the changes are expected to deliver:
- Less overcrowding and faster journeys for Aberdeen-Edinburgh travellers
- More frequent service from Perth, Dundee, Leuchars and other Fife services to Edinburgh
- Early-morning services from Fife to Edinburgh
- An opportunity created for an extension to Levenmouth
- Newcraighall linked in both directions with Cowdenbeath, which gives a symmetrical Crossrail
- A decent commuter service from Inverurie into Aberdeen
- A morning gap filled on the Aberdeen-Inverness route.