Bogged down
current Scottish Government for this state of affairs he ignores the fact that for decades when Westminster was in charge and awash with annual cash surpluses from North Sea oil, little or nothing was done about Scottish infrastructure, including the promised direct rail links from Scotland through the Channel Tunnel or even a complete motorway from Edinburgh to Glasgow. Even now Scotland will not be getting a consequential increase in spending as a result of the London Cross Rail and High Speed Rail Link (HS2) infrastructure projects costing some £80 billion.
Following devolution, a massive catch-up exercise had to be undertaken, not helped by the “inferiority complex” ascribed by civil servants to the first Labour/lib Dem Scottish Executive. Since the SNP took over in 2007, despite continual cuts from Westminster, we have seen numerous major road improvements costing billions of pounds, plus the reopening of the Borders Railway, which is the longest new domestic railway to be built in Britain in more than 100 years. £742m has been spent on Edinburgh to Glasgow rail improvements, including widespread electrification of the network between the two cities and to Stirling and Dunblane and it would help if the UK government devolved Network Rail so we could at least have a more efficiently run joined-up railway system in Scotland. Forget his title, which is a deterrent to those of us more enamoured of iron roads than iron ladies, Jamie Greene MSP’S article comes as a breath of fresh air, and not the usual tired, philistine blather about “building more and better roads to cope”.
We have to meet huge challenges from the growth of baby-boom tourists, and young folk, wanting scenery and security rather than (occasional) sun and thrills-to-risks. They will be largely based on cruise ships, air and rail – intent on seeing an attractive and “authentic” country, and game for such attractions as maximise the quality of our culture.
This I learned in 2015 from a fortnight as Global Vision Lecturer on National Geographic’s MS Explorer, sailing up the west coast of the British Islands from Cornwall to the Shetlands: a marvellous introduction, though involving unpredictable weather, and the core of an organisational problem we also encountered on Iona, where the Explorer and one other smallish liner packed the whole place out.
Last summer we saw the hopelessness of car-driven access to the Highlands while Victorian schemes, particularly for coastal shipping and scenic railway routes, gained a new relevance, in particular after the Waverley Railway revival showed the value of coordinating transport timetabling, cultural access and accommodation. The beauty of such a strategy, based on the shift of transport investment to rail and sea, is the chance to get a new generation out of call centres and trained in mechanical and catering skills. Switzerland with a seaboard? Bring it on! (PROF) CHRISTOPHER HARVIE
High Cross Avenue, Melrose A cautionary tale for those wishing to embrace Gaelic. Friends who downsized called their new house “Tigh Beag”. They knew the literal meaning was “small house”, which they felt most appropriate. Some time later, they were informed by a Gaelic speaker that “tigh beag” also means “toilet”.
BILL DREW Cairn Road, Kirriemuir