Meeting of the Parliament 19 March 2026 [Draft]
The first thing that I would like to say is to express my warmest thanks to Network Rail, ScotRail and all the players in Glasgow City Council that have been involved in making sure that Glasgow Central station is now partially open, that services have been able to be restored for much of Ayrshire and Lanarkshire and that cross-border services to London have also been restored. I am really grateful to everyone for the superhuman effort that has been put in. The Cabinet Secretary for Transport, Fiona Hyslop, visited Glasgow Central station this morning to thank people on the Government’s behalf.
After such a devastating event, Stuart McMillan is right to raise an issue that is of significant concern to many people. Discussions are on-going between Glasgow City Council and the Government in the wake of the fire. Network Rail is a statutory consultee, and planning authorities must notify it of certain developments in close proximity to a railway line. By law, all planning applications, including those near railways, must also be publicised so that parties have an opportunity to comment on proposed developments.