8 July 2010
Welcome for Scottish commitment to rail electrification
While a number rail electrification programmes in England have been recently postponed, Transport Scotland this week has confirmed that it has no plans to postpone the Edinburgh Glasgow Improvement Programme (EGIP), a £1 billion investment that will electrify 200 miles of railway along Scotland’s central belt.
Speaking on this issue Transform Scotland Chair, Paul Tetlaw commented:
“We very much welcome the commitment from Transport Scotland to the central belt electrification programme and associated improved journey times and connections.We believe that this is the correct response to the many challenges facing us, in particular the need to reduce our climate change emissions and to reduce our dependency on oil as a fuel for transport.
"This approach is in contrast to that being taken south of the border by the DfT. Here doubts over the modest infill electrification between Liverpool and Manchester may mean that diesel trains continue to run long distances from Manchester to Scotland over the modernised and electrified West Coast Main Line. This does not demonstrate joined up thinking by the DfT."