Rail campaigners call for 'heads to be pulled out of the sand' following alarm at lobbying for completion of A9 and A96 dualling while promised rail upgrades are still awaited
Rail campaigners have criticised Highland Council for lobbying for the completion of the A9 and A96 dualling while ignoring the potential of parallel rail routes.
The campaign group, Friends of the Far North Line, has written a strongly-worded open letter urging the council to back calls to upgrade the intercity rail links from Inverness.
The group, which campaigns for upgrading of the line between Inverness and Caithness and the connecting routes to Aberdeen, Perth, Edinburgh and Glasgow, says rail has the potential to generate massive safety, connectivity and environmental benefits.
But it says it was alarmed by recent discussions concerning the Scottish Government’s plans to dual the A96 and the remainder of the A9 between Inverness and Perth while improvements to the Highland Main Line, promised 13 years ago in the Strategic Transport Policy Review, are still awaited.
The group’s open letter states: "Highland Council, far from supporting moves to change Scottish transport priorities, is calling for spending on road upgrades as though there is no climate emergency.
"This is not a good look for Scotland as delegates arrive for the COP26 conference in Glasgow.
"Heads must be pulled out of the sand in the face of the emergency.
"It is well known that, especially for freight, rail represents a massive fuel saving compared with road transport powered by any means."
Ian Budd, convener of Friends of the Far North Line, called on the council to be visibly proactive in the campaign to bring the railways up to the required standards.
"We are still waiting for improvements to the largely single-track Inverness-Perth line which were promised by the Scottish Government in 2008, but were quietly dropped in favour of the dualling of the A9," he said.
"Yet the A9 had been completely rebuilt in the 1980s, while the railway infrastructure has been cut back since then."
He said while some town bypasses were needed along the A96 route from Inverness to Aberdeen, full dualling at an estimated cost of £5 billion taking inflation into account, was unnecessary.
Replying to the letter, Councillor Trish Robertson, chairwoman of the council’s economy and infrastructure committee, agreed "to some extent" that the roads should not be the priority and to concentrate on the A9 above all else was wrong.
She said the A96 needed attention especially at Nairn. The Inverness section included the bypass and presently was the only section marked as going forward.
"We need an integrated transport system which includes rail at an affordable price," Cllr Robertson continued.
"It is not just infrastructure that needs looked at but also pricing.
"Unless the frequency of trains is increased and capacity for goods increased we will not win the argument to use the train."
She also said the journey times north of Inverness were too long.
"I am heartened that the Dalcross halt is becoming a reality," she said. "The negative attitude to improvements further north is a worry.
"I place some hope in the hydrogen train coming for trials this month. This may well be the catalyst we need for improvements in the north."
Council convener Bill Lobban said: "Transport links must not be a road versus rail issue and while we desperately need a vastly improved and inter-connected road network we also need an efficient railway system."
He said the billions of pounds being spent on a high-speed rail link in southern England would be better used in improving access to the remoter parts of the Highlands be that by road, rail and air.
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