On track for another expensive failure?
A ONE-WAY TICKET TO THE 1970s
sO THE sNP is nationalising the scottish rail network. What are their qualifications for such an undertaking? We have an administration which took over Prestwick Airport and is still trying to sell it; the costly ferries fiasco continues; no solution as yet to the A83 Rest and be Thankful problems; and the issues encountered on the £1.3billion Queensferry Crossing are unresolved. Last week, we had the announcement that 19 to 21-year-olds will get free bus travel in scotland, so what will the sNP do to attract them onto the trains? With the sNP’s ‘track’ record I will not anticipate a drastic improvement.
e. nICHoLLS, Dunfermline, Fife. OH dear me, the news that scotRail is to be nationalised by the scottish Government in setting up another quango company to run rail services fills me with dread. Could this be the scottish Government going down the same road as Prestwick Airport, Ferguson Marine shipyards and BiFab – using millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money in matters that it has no knowledge of and ending in tears? Will the sNP ever learn? DennIS FoRbeS GRATTAn,
bucksburn, Aberdeen. BE AFRAID. Be very afraid. If the sNP’s plan to nationalise the railway in scotland does not send a shiver down your spine, it should. Every single instance of sNP involvement in projects in scotland – the ferries costing untold millions and now tied up and rusting; BiFab; the ‘best bridge in the world’ that is closed every time we have a freeze; the redundant airport
– has finished disastrously. The list of failures seems endless. The problem is that the projects as such mean nothing to them. The real motivation in becoming involved is to make something, not better, but more ‘scottish’. Perhaps nationalising our rail system is a good idea, even with the seemingly inevitable fare increases, I really do not know. But I do know that the involvement of the sNP is the kiss of death and this project, like all the others, will only end in tears.