Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid) 22 September 2021
As someone for whom world car free day is an everyday reality—I have spent more than 48 hours on trains in the past month—folk hamming up the grave disruption to their lives that would come from not using their car for a 20-minute journey on one day out of 365 really jars. I therefore thank my colleagues on the Labour benches for giving me this opportunity to make productive use of my irrational annoyance.
Being a Highlands and Islands representative, I understand that going car free is not only difficult for many of my constituents but impossible. If you live in Alness and work in a care home in Barbaraville, how do you get to your night shift when the last bus has long gone? I also accept that many could make the switch from car to public transport. However, they do not, because we are not giving them good reason to. When the journey from Thurso to Inverness is four hours on the train and two hours and twenty minutes in a car, why would you take the train?
The Friends of the Far North Line point out in their latest issue—and, it is fair to say, in all their issues—that most of the Highland main line remains single track, asking, “When will the sun shine on the Highland main line?” I have raised the need to double that route twice in the chamber already. I expect that a number of my colleagues will be sick of hearing about it from me fairly soon and until it happens.
Given the massive carbon efficiency benefits and the fact that massive lorries carrying freight that could be transported by rail—not to mention the current issues around who drives those lorries—are the cause of many issues on the A9, it is great to see mention of moving more freight on to our railways in the Government amendment. However, you can go only so far with that while the Highland main line remains single track. If we are talking about the benefit to the climate, it surely makes sense to move freight off the roads and on to rail, where the journeys are the longest and therefore carbon emissions highest.
It is fantastic that we are talking so much about decarbonising public transport—about electrifying and exploring ways to hydrogen power trains on existing routes such as the west Highland line. However, having control of the franchise surely means that we have to go further than simply improving what is there. We also have to ensure that the services and timetables are working not only for those who currently use them but for those who can be convinced.
I find it bizarre that ScotRail is using current passenger numbers to justify service reductions. We cannot use passenger numbers as any kind of basis for decision making at a time when people have been actively told not to use the train. We should be looking to the future and using the opportunity of service changes to encourage more users, and I was glad to see that mentioned in the Scottish Government amendment.
I was as excited as a child at Christmas—or me at Christmas—when I heard the announcement that the Government was taking over ScotRail ownership, and I am even more excited now that there is a commitment to putting staff and passengers at the heart of governance. However, I share the disappointment that, in the wake of that, timetable changes show that we are still not using high-speed trains to service Inverness. It is the city with the longest intercity routes in the country, which surely should mean that it is top of the list for dunting trains that have been described by ScotRail and the Scottish Government as
“not suited for intercity travel”.
ScotRail being brought into public hands provides us with a massive opportunity to get things right, which is recognised in the Labour motion and the Scottish Government amendment. I look forward to working with my colleagues across the chamber, including Scottish Labour, to make sure that that happens.
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