We are lagging far behind in the race for a top-rate transport system

Note, first of all, the comfy shoes for the sprint to a Tube or airport train that takes a good hour to get into central London. Observe the large, backache-inducing bag carrying laptops, phones, and the other accoutrements of modern business life. See the bottle of water or coffee in one hand, eye bags the size of chicken fillets (that 4am rise is a killer) and a general air of weariness even before the day has properly begun. Some 16 hours later, catching the last flight home, our adventurers will do all this again. No wonder some can be seen clutching Herald Sport to their chests like comfort blankets, trying hard not to sob and call for their mammies.

Travellers yesterday would have been able to read in this newspaper about the report from the independent Airports Commission that advocated the building of a third runway at Heathrow rather than expanding Gatwick. It has taken the commission three years, and £20 million, to come to the same conclusion that Scottish business has backed for years. So there we are. Our plucky Scottish air travellers, be they journeying for business or pleasure, can look forward to a new age of more frequent flights, at prices that do not amount to the cost of a week's holiday, that will connect them to the main London hub and the world beyond. Alas, not so fast there, sir and madam. I am afraid you are going to have to run those expectations through the machine again.

David Cameron did not know where to put himself at Prime Minister's Questions when the subject of Heathrow came up. One fancied he would have preferred being in the red-eye queue rather than the Commons chamber as Harriet Harman, stand-in Labour leader, teased him about whether he would accept the commission's recommendation. Having previously declared himself a No man (again) over a third runway at Heathrow - "no ifs, no buts" he said in 2009 - it should have been clear where he stood. After all, how could a man be so certain of something six years ago only to recant? It would be like Richard Dawkins conceding that maybe there was something in this God idea after all, or Jim Murphy acknowledging that he might have been just a smidgen to blame for Labour's electoral annihilation.

Mr Cameron could not recant, however; not just because recanting is a major can't of politics, but because he would have drawn even more attention to the dirty, great, runway-size divide in his party between those who support Heathrow expansion (including his Chancellor, George Osborne) and those, led by Boris Johnson, London mayor and now MP, who think it is the devil's work. When it comes to the Heathrow question, only Europe can induce a greater fit of the vapours among the Tories. This is more than a question of principle. This is about their (at present safe) London seats.

Scots air travellers can at least comfort themselves with the fact that flights to and from London run reasonably efficiently. If only the Scottish rail traveller could be so certain of getting to their destination on time, if at all. Due to the closure of the Winchburgh Tunnel for engineering works until July 26, rail travellers between Glasgow and Edinburgh are having to forgo the "fast" 45 minute service and instead chug along for anything up to an hour and a half on suburban services that make the average milk float look like a Japanese bullet train. In a separate development, should you want to do anything so giddy as to travel on a Sunday, be aware that, from this weekend, ScotRail is trimming the timetable. Not to worry, though; there are plans to employ 100 new drivers and stop the dependence on staff volunteering to work Sundays, but which platform the new staff will be arriving on, and more importantly when, is not yet known. Please watch the board, and the stars, for more information. And let us not even get started on the Glasgow Subway system that shuts up shop on Sunday evenings.

Would any other advanced country tolerate such toy-town transport services? Would business travellers from Munich to Berlin put up with the grim daily grind of Glasgow to Edinburgh commuters? Would New York be inaccessible to DC on a Sunday? Is London to Birmingham a frequent no-go? If the system does not work between Scotland's main cities, pity the poor travellers in other parts of the country. Where public transport is not an option - as it so often is not - they are forced on to the roads, there to run the gauntlet of roadworks.

While one might have expected Scotland's MPs to join in the collective condemnation of Mr Cameron's prevarication over Heathrow, they were too busy posturing over the done deal that is the Scotland Bill. At Holyrood, transport is far behind health, education, the Union and welfare in the amount of attention it receives. Travelling is a crucial part of everyday life for millions of Scots, yet as a constituency Scottish travellers are ignored or taken for granted in a way that London commuters would never tolerate. Good transport links are also vital for tourism.

One wonders, then, why transport should be so neglected, so pushed down the agenda. Perhaps Scottish politicians believe that transport, and the question of air links in particular, is largely a middle class concern and, as such, does not fit into the anti-austerity-first approach that so dominates thinking. The point about public transport, however, is that most of us have to use it, whether it be to get to a job interview on time and avoid having one's benefit cut, or to fly to China in the hope of doing a deal that will create or secure jobs. Those on a low income are more likely to use public transport, not less.

A fast, reliable transport system with links to the rest of the world is not a luxury; it is essential if the Scottish economy is to grow as it must and improve the living standards and life chances of Scots. The Scottish Government is fond of arguing that there are two sides to its economic policy coin: increasing growth and tackling inequality. As its economic strategy of March 2015 puts it: "A strong, vibrant and diverse economy is essential to our national prosperity and in creating the wealth to support high quality public services."

Transport is a fundamental part of that mix, and it is time it was given the priority it deserves. Scottish MPs and MSPs getting to the head of the queue on Heathrow, and lobbying for more domestic services, will not solve everything, but it would be a good place to start. Scotland can take on the world, but not if it continues to struggle merely to get from A to B.