I FIND myself agreeing with Alex Hynes on the age of the trains being less relevant than other factors ("Passengers ‘do not care how old their trains are'", The Herald, October 9). The trains being launched at Aberdeen today (October 10) are indeed 40 years old, but their engines are less than 10 years old, and the comfort and speed of these trains still beats any younger diesel trains.
But behind all this razzmatazz, there is another story that ScotRail seem reluctant to acknowledge. The flagship new Hitachi trains operating on the Edinburgh and Glasgow main line have all been withdrawn for safety reasons, leaving commuters with half-length trains in the main, and a return to worse overcrowding than we have seen for many years. The fault will surely lie with the trains' builders, Hitachi, but this again highlights a major deficiency in the privatisation model that has been imposed on us. The operators like ScotRail are not allowed to own any trains. They must lease them from a small number of owning companies. This both increases costs, and creates a constant shortage of spare trains. There is no effective market in spare diesel trains, and spare electric trains are kept hundreds of miles away. So, no quick relief for the long-suffering commuters on the Edinburgh-Glasgow line.
So when the SNP suggests handing over operation to CalMac, this will only solve some of the problems. CalMac needs to own its own fleet of trains to provide the level of service we deserve.
Arthur Homan-Elsy,
55 Deanburn Road,
Linlithgow.
ABOUT 50 years ago, under the direction of a Transport Minister with a strong personal financial stake in the road-building industry, Dr Beeching closed one-third of Britain’s railways. The criterion was profitability. So the axe fell most heavily on Scotland with its remote settlements.
Fortunately environmental issues have now come to the fore, bringing a new emphasis on public transport.
The Glasgow Subway, built in 1896 (same year as Budapest’s) is the third-oldest underground system in the world. It is the only system which has never been expanded.
There have been at least two lost opportunities to do so. From 1977-79 the system closed for renovation. Expansion was seriously discussed, but in the end they settled for renewing the stations and rolling stock (at a cost of £52 million).
At the same time Newcastle and Gateshead constructed an entire Metro system from scratch at a cost of just over £200 million.
In 2013 the Strathclyde Passenger Transport espoused a plan to expand the Subway east and south, joining it up with railways closed in the 1960s and 1970s. This plan was shelved.
Now renovation is again under discussion: shinier stations and driverless trains.
No mention of extending the lines to the destinations people want to reach.
The folk of the East End, in particular, suffer from low car ownership. Bus services to the outlying schemes can be unreliable.
The main part of the expense in constructing a subway system is surely planning and digging the tunnels, and many of these tunnels are already there.
Most cosmopolitan centres of the world – many smaller than Glasgow – have a proper metro system which is the first choice for their commuters. If Glasgow reopened its low level tunnels and stations the current Subway with its unique gauge tracks could remain as the Circle Line, just as London’s original Underground became its Circle Line when the Tube first expanded many years ago.
Please don’t let us miss this opportunity again.
Mary McCabe,
25 Circus Drive,
Glasgow.
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