A high-speed rail link could bring economic benefits of more than £7bn to Scotland, MSPs heard yesterday.
A high-speed rail link could bring economic benefits of more than £7bn to Scotland, MSPs heard yesterday.
Officials from local authorities, business groups and transport bodies united in calling for a dedicated railway line between Glasgow and Edinburgh and London. Ron Hewitt, chief executive of Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce, told the Scottish Parliament Transport Committee the link would create a huge number of jobs as well as new business opportunities.
He said: "This is one of the ones you would say is a bit of a no-brainer. I lived in France and saw the contribution the TGV makes to life in France. It's enormous, and I don't mean just the social and cultural life, but also from a business point of view. That's what we want and we've been denied it up to now."
A high-speed rail route was thought necessary to protect Scotland's competitiveness both in UK and international terms.
Garry Clark, head of policy and public affairs with the Scottish Chambers of Commerce, said they regarded high-speed rail as being "a key step forward for the future".
He said: "At the moment we have a rail industry, a rail network which is at or near capacity, and unless we do something to improve that capacity we will end up with a railway system designed in the 19th century being still the major form of public transport in the 21st century."
While construction costs of the line have been put at £31bn, Mr Clark claimed the economic benefits to the UK as a whole could be £60bn.
He added: "The economic benefits to Scotland are proportionally higher than the rest of the United Kingdom, with something like £7.3bn economic benefit to Scotland, compared to £60bn in the UK."
National Express, current operator on the east coast main line, estimates a high-speed rail line could mean journey times from Edinburgh to London could be reduced to two hours and 15 minutes.
Owen Kelly, chief executive of Scottish Financial Enterprise, said if rail could cut journey times from Glasgow or Edinburgh to London to under three hours "you would be mad to fly and nobody would do that".
He added: "If we're serious about competing internationally this is the kind of thing we're going to have to do."
