GOOD grief.
Surely Scotland isn't about to be infected by a bout of joined-up thinking in our transport system? We thought Scots had to travel to Europe or, whisper it, London, to find that.
The news that the new Dutch (spoiler alert, that means European) operators of ScotRail want to join with Strathclyde Passenger Transport in seeking to create a Scotland-wide equivalent to London's Oyster card is a piece of thinking so logical that we can scarcely believe this is happening in dear old Caledonia.
Be clear: the fragmentation which flowed from deregulation of our bus services and privatisation of our railways has been an impediment to progress. But the prize is worth striving for. Instead of it being our senior citizens who routinely reach for their travel card, it should be every citizen who does so. Combining the functions of paid for season ticket, entitlement card for the older and younger citizens, and loadable smart card for those who want to make individual journeys, the idea makes perfect sense.
Our current hotch-potch makes very little sense at all and a new smartcard could iron out some of the anomalies. Edinburgh Trams, for example, are currently free to the capital's senior citizens but not for those with an identical entitlement card issued in Fife or West Lothian. The capital's bus service is acknowledged as excellent, but unlike in Europe it double charges if your journey requires two buses to get to your destination.
Policies on allowing bicycles onto trains have been contradictory to stated public policy, and bus services across the country have become sporadic, patchy and often over-priced.
London, an area one fiftieth of that of Scotland but with a population more than half as big again, has had to develop a world-class public transport infrastructure with capital investment to match. But credit where due for the creation of its Oyster card.
Now, thanks to work carried out by SPT and East Kilbride-based firm Ecebs through their joint venture Nevis Technologies on the Bramble project, a transport smartcard with universal application across Scotland on buses, trains, trams and ferries is now a prize which is within our grasp, and the Scottish Government should do everything possible to promote it.
Rail privatisation in the UK has been a near universal calamity, and the experience of East Coast rail flourishing when it was taken back into public ownership led many to argue that the renewal of the ScotRail franchise should not have been put out to private tender. There are arguments around EU competition law which can be bandied on both sides.
But as the new operator Abellio made most of the right noises yesterday. Getting their staff to tweak their own uniforms did not augur well, but pledges on revamping rolling stock and keeping fares competitive sounded good.
So too did their approach to cyclists, hardly surprising for a Dutch company, and other measures announced at their launch. But if the smartcard proposal takes of and becomes an exemplar of wider joined up thinking in our public transport we will all get the benefit.
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