Cut car use? Let’s get trains on track first

MAtHs has never been my strongest suit, but it’s my guess that you could probably do quite a lot with £600million.

Fix a couple of schools maybe, or bail out a few small businesses. You could even buy yourself 3.6billion tunnock’s chocolate teacakes (according to my sums, anyway), if you were feeling particularly whimsical.

Either way, £600million is a lot of money. Which is why it is so astonishing to learn that this is what scotland’s chaotic rail system, run by those lovely folk over at scotrail, is costing the scottish economy.

An analysis by economist richard Marsh found that 27,100 trains were cancelled in 2018-19, a rise of a whopping 163 per cent in 20 years, and that cancellations and delays were costing the economy about £620million. 163 per cent? How on earth is this possible?

I have written before about how I spent eight long, miserable years between 2000 and 2008 commuting by scotrail from glasgow to Edinburgh, and how the memory of standing on freezing platforms waiting for late or cancelled trains still haunts me. Now however, I realise that, laughably, those were the good years. god help those who have to do it now.

What’s even worse though, is the knock-on effect. on tourism, on industry and on business, scotland’s creaking rail service is affecting every part of our economy, and having a serious and tangible impact.

so you’ll forgive me if I’m not overly excited by the scottish government’s latest transport strategy, which states that failing to take more steps to cut car use is ‘no longer an option’.

Isn’t it? then why is our public transport system still so woefully inadequate? Do the people coming up with this stuff ever actually take a train?

Well, the members of a number of citizen’s panels which were recently canvassed over the controversial SNP car park tax clearly have. the panels reported that members believed the parking levy which will charge employees for parking at work was unfair, and that it should be scrapped. What they really wanted was for the price of public transport to be lowered, with better subsidies and discounts available.

Will the scottish government suddenly change its mind following this revelation? I wouldn’t bet on it. We are forever hearing about ‘the people of scotland’ thanks to those Nationalist MPs who claim to speak for all of us, and yet when it comes right down to it pay little attention to what we are actually saying. Instead, views are ignored or side-lined, squashed by the juggernaut that is an SNP policy which will stop for no man.

So instead we are stuck with a rail system that not only doesn’t work properly but which is costing us over half a billion pounds a year, a government dead set on charging people for driving to work, and a long-term strategy that insists we shouldn’t be driving at all. Perhaps they should just issue us all with unicycles and be done with it.

In the meantime though, here’s an idea for any members of the scottish government who actually are listening. Pop down to Edinburgh Waverley station any day of the week and have a squint at the departures board.

Because it’s only then that you’ll get a sense of just how difficult it is to get around this country by train. Figure out a way to make our public transport system better and then maybe we can talk about reducing car use.

otherwise, you might as well waste your money on 3.6billion teacakes.