The Friends of the Far North Line
Cairdean Na Loine Tuath
the campaign group for rail north of
Inverness - lobbying for improved services for the local user, tourist and freight
operator
Thank you for your timely and wide ranging week of articles about the state of the railways in Scotland.
It is evident that provision varies widely across the nation with some places served in a better manner than others. Relevant geographical factors include terrain and accessibility, population density and locations of industry and commerce.
Although a lot of good work has been done electrifying most lines in the central belt and the two main arteries to England, much remains to be done to electrify and speed up the main lines north to Aberdeen and Inverness through the strategic cities of Dundee and Perth.
Inverness is further disadvantaged by being the only Scottish city substantially and critically hobbled by the blight of long sections of single track line. It is very difficult to schedule any additional freight or passenger trains north of Perth or Aberdeen until extra line capacity is provided. Average journey speeds barely reach 50mph! Developments such as the new Inverness and Cromarty Firth Freeport will be held back.
I was one of more than a hundred people who heard the First Minister after the Cabinet Meeting in Inverness on 5 August 2008 promise to provide hourly train services to Edinburgh and Glasgow taking 3 hours and to Aberdeen in 2 hours.
A start was made with the excellent redoubling of the line from Aberdeen to Inverurie, and the introduction in 2000 of a "Business train" to Edinburgh taking 3 hrs 10 mins southbound and five minutes longer northbound.
Recently the Inverness Chamber of Commerce has been rightly complaining that these trains are now taking 26 and 40minutes longer respectively. The whole service has worsened, often with long waiting times in Perth station.
Jonathan Pugh (Herald 1 February) has clearly outlined the seeming paralysis in some decision making on the railways, which, with Government financial reluctance to allocate capital to improve line capacity, is letting down the Highland economy.
I understand that money is short, but often it is not ScotRail to blame when trains are late. It is the Scottish Government.
The Friends of the Far North Line heartily endorses the comments in Kevin McKenna's article "Scotland's two-tier railway system and why the Central Belt wouldn't put up with it" (Herald 5 February).
Public services, such as railways, are provided for the use, and benefit, of everyone and should not be subjected to the 'business case mentality' which looks to see how many people live in a particular area and evaluates their costs/worth in £s per person. This is not how a country works. The sooner we can escape from these shackles the better.
We have been campaigning for twenty years for a very small piece of infrastructure just west of Inverness which would transform the reliability and capacity of services on the Far North Line by allowing trains going in opposite directions to pass each other. This ability is a given on roads - even single track roads have many passing places. Single track railways have very few, and Inverness, shockingly, is served only by single track railways.
We've been told there is no money available even for a tiny project like this.
To achieve the transfer of as much traffic as possible from road to rail this 'Highlands Railway Deficit' must be addressed urgently by the Scottish Government.