Sturgeon’s dream of a Scots ‘bullet train’ is derailed

FIRST Minister Nicola Sturgeon’s hopes of a high-speed railway between Scotland’s two largest cities by 2024 have hit the buffers.

Nicola SturgeonPH

Nicola Sturgeon's hopes for a Scottish high-speed rail link are falling by the wayside

Making the announcement in November 2012, Ms Sturgeon said the Scottish Government would “not wait” for Westminster and would be “firing ahead” with the ambitious plans.

She even compared the proposed 140mph link between Glasgow and Edinburgh to Japan’s famous bullet train, which was launched in 1964.

Then Deputy First Minister, Ms Sturgeon said the service could be up and running “within just 12 years”, whisking passengers between the two cities in less than half an hour.

We will not wait for Westminster to bring high-speed rail to us

Nicola Sturgeon

Now it can be revealed the ‘Fast Track Scotland’ scheme will not go ahead as planned, despite costing the taxpayer as much as £5million in fees for research and publicity.

A feasibility study by Transport Scotland was presented to ministers in December and is awaiting publication, although it is expected to say the Glasgow-Edinburgh link could only go ahead as part of a UK-wide network.

Officials are now in negotiations to work alongside private firm HS2 Ltd and Westminster’s Department of Transport.  

Ms Sturgeon made a speech at the ‘Faster and Further Conference’ in Glasgow in 2012. She said: “We now know that, within just 12 years, we could build a line which will see journey times between our two major cities cut to less than half an hour.

“We will not wait for Westminster to bring high-speed rail to us. 

“We have already made moves towards seeing a high-speed line in Scotland and the evidence is now in place that this is feasible long before the HS2 proposals.”

But the Scottish Government has still not identified where it will get the money to introduce the superfast Glasgow to Edinburgh service and cannot confirm whether a 140mph project can even be operational at all.

Scottish Conservative transport spokesman Alex Johnstone questioned the veracity of many of the SNP promises over the last seven years of Holyrood power.

He said: “In the run-up to the referendum the SNP made a number of pledges which it clearly had absolutely no intention of seeing through.

“This was one such promise and it was nothing but a prestige pipe dream from the First Minister.”

A spokeswoman for the Scottish Government said: “Nobody has actually announced high-speed rail 

for Scotland. 

“What we announced in 2012 was a study into the feasibility of a Glasgow-Edinburgh line, and it’s very much dependent on whether there will be a cross-Border line for it to connect to.”  

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