The chief of Glasgow Chamber of Commerce has called for the Scottish Government to prioritise Glasgow Airport to ensure it does not fall behind.
Stuart Patrick wrote that Glasgow Airport mustn’t fall by default into a situation where Edinburgh Airport becomes a more attractive option via the less-congested eastbound M8.
Yesterday it was revealed that a plan to link Glasgow Airport with Paisley Gilmour Street rail station will be explored further, after proposals for a direct route between the airport and Glasgow city centre were judged to have raised “significant challenges”.
READ MORE: Glasgow Airport rail link plan axed again
A direct rail link to Glasgow Central station was announced as part of the £1.13 billion Glasgow City Region deal agreed in 2014 and was expected to be operational by 2025.
However, following analysis of the proposals, concerns were raised regarding several aspects of such a link.
Glasgow City Council leader Susan Aitken said that a joint-executive steering group – which includes Glasgow and Renfrewshire councils, Transport Scotland, Network Rail and Glasgow Airport – would evaluate alternative options for improving airport connectivity.
Ms Aitken said: “There will be an airport link. It will, probably, be a different project from the outlined business case that was passed by the City Region Cabinet in 2016.
“I think it’s fair to say that Transport Scotland always had significant concerns about the impact on Central Station capacity, in particular, of an additional line."
Under the original proposals, as set out in the City Regions deal, work on the link was to begin in 2023 and be fully operational by 2025.
Ms Aitken indicated that the timescale for revised proposals would not change from those that had been previously set out.
READ MORE: Scrapping of Glasgow Airport rail link plan dubbed a "betrayal for the city"
She said: “Anything that is more of a national strategic transport project will have a different timeline and that’s obviously still to be developed.
“But we would expect it to happen within exactly the same timeline”.
Stuart Patrick, chief executive of Glasgow Chamber, writing in the Herald said: "Once more the prospect of a rail connection to Glasgow Airport has been thrown into doubt with the announcement by the Scottish Government, Glasgow City Council and Renfrewshire Council that the proposal for a light rail connection to Central Station is to be put on hold while another alternative is considered.
"So, we have yet another review of a project that is now 12 years on from its initial approval, with some confusion about the alternative.
"Is it to be a version of Heathrow’s car-sized pods connecting the airport to Paisley Gilmour Street station or something that looks more like London’s Docklands Light Railway?
Either way, the debate over the importance of improving access to Glasgow Airport was depressingly familiar.
Glasgow Chamber of Commerce has been a long-standing advocate of a rail link for two primary reasons - the airport’s impact on the city region’s economic growth rate and the rising congestion on the road network on which 99% of the existing traffic to the airport must travel.
"Our concern is that M8 congestion will increasingly hamper growth in the airport’s economic impact and on the investment and jobs we need for the West of Scotland.
"Figures from Transport Scotland show traffic on the M8 near the airport has grown by 20% annually since 2015.
"We mustn’t fall by default into a situation where Edinburgh Airport becomes a more attractive option via the less-congested eastbound M8.
"If we are to accept yet another review we must at least agree that any new alternative should be one that will have popular demand because it’s simple and convenient and that the new track infrastructure to Paisley is designed to be sufficiently flexible that it could be treated as the first stage to the full connection to Central Station once the capacity challenge is tackled.
"But can we also learn from the debacle of the last decade? Glasgow Airport is the main primary international transport asset of our biggest city and too important to the economy to be treated as a political football."
It’s time for our national transport strategy to set out a long-term plan for the Scottish Government to work with the airport to help it grow.
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