Wendy: now Borders Rail gets Go-Ahead whilst GARL stopped in it’s tracks

Wendy condemned the Scottish Government for neglecting Renfrewshire after it emerged that the Borders Rail link is to get the go ahead even though it is not yet started – whilst the Glasgow Airport Rail Link is to be stopped in its tracks. The news that the Borders Rail Link was to go ahead emerged when Transport Scotland placed a notice of the £230 million Borders Railway PFI in the Official Journal of European Union.

According to the notice, the contract is set to be awarded in 2011.

Paisley North MSP Wendy Alexander said:

“The decision to go ahead with the new Borders Rail line shows the Scottish Government are willing to neglect Renfrewshire and the West of Scotland. Instead of finishing the rail line they have started here in Renfrewshire – they have stopped it in its tracks – but given the go-ahead to a new Borders rail line.

I am committed to reinstating the Glasgow Airport Rail Link (GARL) which the Scottish Government have cancelled.

By giving the go ahead to a new Borders rail line it is clear for all the see that the Scottish Government made a political decision to drop GARL. They did not consult beforehand and looked at no alternative funding mechanism (from SFT, Network Rail or the relevant local authorities). Yet they have gone ahead with the Borders rail link. Scotland’s big 6 business organisations have said GARL is affordable and that it should be reinstated in the Budget – they say the Scottish Government cancelled it because their priorities lie elsewhere.

The cancellation of GARL means the loss of 1,300 jobs, £300m investment to Renfrewshire and the West of Scotland, and the loss of national infrastructure project to whole of Scotland. Labour members of the Scottish Parliament’s finance committee put forward an amendment to the Finance Committee’s report on the Budget to reinstate GARL but the SNP members and the Tory members joined together to vote against it.