Anger building at Transport Scotland�s �inaction�
By Colin Donald, Business Editor

Five years after the construction of a £4.3 million Edinburgh Park station on the capital's western outskirts, business leaders are stepping up attacks on the Scottish government and its transport arm, Transport Scotland, for failing to allow direct trains from Glasgow to stop there.

Pamela Grant, director of New Edinburgh Limited, the partnership between the Edinburgh Council and the Miller Group, which owns Edinburgh Park, told the Sunday Herald: "We contributed over £1m to the building of the station on the clear understanding that it would service the many people who work in Edinburgh Park who want convenient links to Glasgow. So far we are not seeing this benefit."

"The previous transport minister, Tavish Scott, indicated that he was about to take action on this before the 2007 election, but no progress has been made since. We believe that rail patronage figures on this route would increase by about 900 a day if a stop on Glasgow trains was included. This inaction contravenes the government's strategy of getting people out of their cars and onto the trains."

Edinburgh Park, the South Gyle and Gogarburn, which are all served by the station, comprise the fourth-largest and fastest-growing economic area in Scotland, after the city centres of Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen. Some 30,000 people arrive in the area every day, 7500 of them by train.

Ron Hewitt, chief executive of Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce, said: "I cannot fathom the reluctance of Transport Scotland to stop the fast trains to Glasgow at Edinburgh Park station. As Edinburgh's fastest growing business campus supporting nine of Scotland's 20 fastest growing companies, the continued absence of this economically vital transport link beggars belief.

"Transport Scotland and its predecessors have been considering the matter' for some five years. They say they can't slow the train by adding a stop, which they claim would cost £140m. They don't have to. All we are asking is that they swap two stops an hour with other stations.

"What other major economy would balk at such a decision? It seems to me the minister is being poorly advised on this issue."

Edinburgh Chambers proposes that Edinburgh-Glasgow trains alternate half-hourly stops at Edinburgh Park with those at Croy or Polmont. "These stops are deserts during the day. They could easily give up a stop an hour," said Hewitt.

A spokesman for Transport Scotland said: "Edinburgh Park is currently served by four trains an hour to and from Dunblane. This will increase to six trains an hour with the completion of Transport Scotland and Network Rail's £300m Airdrie-Bathgate project. This will provide greater capacity, more travel planning choice and a direct link from Glasgow Queen Street to Edinburgh Park.

"Ministers have taken decisions which fully recognise and balance the importance of developments in the west of Edinburgh with the significant benefits to the national economy of improving journey times and increasing services between Edinburgh and Glasgow - as well as providing a viable alternative to the car.

"Studies show a benefit of about £60m for every minute we can reduce from the rail journey time between our two biggest cities."

Two extra hourly trains from Glasgow via the Airdrie-Bathgate line are expected to be introduced in 2010. In addition, last September the government announced a £1 billion package of improvements for Edinburgh-Glasgow services, including investment needed to speed up the journey and allow "even more" stops at Edinburgh Park without lengthening the end-to-end journey time or disadvantaging the many passengers who already use the service at intermediate stations.

The Transport Scotland spokesman said: "The full programme of improvements will be completed by 2016, but it is expected that many of the benefits may be achieved in advance of that date. We are working on necessary design work with industry partners and cannot give a definitive order or timetable of work for each element of the programme at the moment."

Hewitt said: "Network Rail have told us that the Airdrie-Bathgate line, which is laughably described as semi-fast' - what you and I would call slow - will fill the gap with a service that takes 65 minutes. This is hardly fast enough to entice people out of their cars."

Commuters from Glasgow to Edinburgh Park currently have to alight at Linlithgow and wait for a Dunblane train to Edinburgh Park, or travel in to Haymarket and back out again, adding about 20 minutes to their journey.

A survey of the feasibility of direct rail services to Glasgow from Edinburgh Park was carried out by consultants Faber Maunsell in 2006.

It found that 85% of employees travelling to Glasgow for business would use the train for their journey either occasionally or regularly if there was a direct link.

The survey also found that the inclusion of an Edinburgh Park stop on the existing half-hourly eastbound Glasgow-Edinburgh service (via Croy, Falkirk High and Haymarket) could be accommodated without increasing the overall journey time. A stop on the half-hourly westbound train would increase journey time, Faber Maunsell said, by 30 seconds.

Faber Maunsell, which is also employed as a consultant for Transport Scotland, said that annual patronage of the Edinburgh Park halt could increase by about 200,000 in the first year, or 900 passengers a day.

Pamela Grant of NEL said: "Transport Scotland thinks that the issue is going to go away with the introduction of the Airdrie-Bathgate service. But we are saying no, it's not."