Hallelujah. There are real signs of progress with the plan to build a new railway station at Winchburgh and a planning application submitted to West Lothian Council.
All being well, permission will be granted before autumn and with a fair wind maybe the expanding town will have its own main line rail stop within two years, making it much easier for residents to commute, just as Fife communities with stations on the Edinburgh line have burgeoned in the past 25 years.
But it has taken too long to get this far and other proposed rail improvements, like the Almond Cord link, which would transform the under-used Edinburgh Gateway station, sit on Network Rail’s sidings waiting for a green light.
It’s the same for the South Sub, a functional two-way track which could give South Edinburgh and the new housing estates stringing along the City Bypass easier access to mainline services without having to get to Waverley or Haymarket.
Then there’s the Borders Rail extension and even putting another track on the existing route to Tweedbank would make it a genuine commuter service.
The technicalities of accommodating new services into the already packed Waverley aside, a growing region needs a public transport network to match and routes which were not deemed viable in the 60s when Dr Beeching swung his axe, closing the South Sub and the Fife Coast line to St Andrews, might now wash their faces.
But bringing them back to life needs money and it’s obvious from this week’s Labour Government spending review that the public resources aren’t there to make them happen.
Public-Private Partnerships got a dirty name 20 years ago with poor value deals to build new schools, but the time is surely right to look at PPPs to raise cash through private investment.
Such investment projects are commonplace in other countries, but here it is much more difficult. For example, Winchburgh Developments Ltd was clear its responsibility was for the work surrounding the station, like access roads and car parking, but has been tussling for years with the Scottish Government to get the station itself built. It shouldn’t be like that.
The Railway Industry Association (RIA) calculates that for every £1 invested in rail transport, over £2.50 of value is generated in the wider economy, so it should be possible to attract private investment in our rail network to take more strain off already congested roads and increase the number of well-served places to live, which would then help tackle the housing shortage.
A recent report from the National Skills Academy for Rail detailed the benefits of investment, but also identified the barriers, notably overly optimistic cost estimates which are a recipe for political disaster, as the SNP should know by now.
“To unlock investment, the rail sector requires a comprehensive, long-term industrial strategy supported by a transparent and stable pipeline of projects,” said the report, and that’s something which is sadly lacking in Scotland.
The report also calls for a clear industrial and economic strategy in which rail plays a prominent part, but again, that’s not something the SNP has addressed.
On Saturday at the Scottish Conservatives’ conference at Murrayfield, I’ll be hosting a discussion with the RIA on private investment, and I’m sure we won’t be short of great ideas to get Scotland and its railways moving.
