PLANS for a high speed train between Glasgow and Edinburgh were doomed from the start because the project was never financially viable, it has been claimed.
Willie Rennie, leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats, accused ministers of making "overblown" promises to cut journey times between the cities to less than 30 minutes.
He hit out after transport minister Derek Mackay refused to published a business case on the scheme prepared for ministers in 2014.
Mr Rennie said: "I suspect the refusal to publish the business plan reveals that the Edinburgh to Glasgow high speed line was never financially viable.
"The government now needs to publish the business plan so we can fully understand whether their overblown claims ever had an element of merit."
Nicola Sturgeon, the then-infrastructure minister announced plans for the high speed link in 2012.
She said 140mph trains would cut journey times to less than 30 minutes.
She said the scheme could be completed by 2024 and stressed it would not be dependent on, the UK Government extending the planned HS2 high speed line from London to the north of England on to Scotland.
However, in a parliamentary answer last week, Mr Mackay revealed the project had been dropped as it "depends on the high speed route coming up from the south".
He said the decision was based on a draft business plan in 2014.
Mr Rennie hit out after questioning the minister at Holyrood.
Mr Mackay denied the high speed link had been shelved but confirmed it was "not possible to progress planning".
He said the Scottish Government had been working with the Department for Transport to identify route options from extending HS2 to Scotland and their conclusions would be published shortly.
He told MSPs: "In terms of 2012, when that position was outlined, there wasn't a commitment from the UK Government - there wasn't even a suggestion from the UK Government - that high speed rail would come to Scotland.
"There is now an opportunity to integrate our ambitions and aspirations, which we have stated, in a way that works in partnership and is a sensible approach".
The government hopes the London to Birmingham section of the £55.7billion HS2 line will be completed by 2026, and further routes to Manchester and Leeds by 2033.
Speaking in 2012, Ms Sturgeon said the Scottish Government would "not wait" for Westminster to deliver a route to Scotland and would be "firing ahead" with its plans for a high speed link between Glasgow and Edinburgh.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel