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Edinburgh air rail link dropped | |
(about 23 hours later) | |
Ambitious plans for an underground rail station at Edinburgh Airport have been scrapped, the government has announced. | |
Proposals for a new station on the Edinburgh-Fife line and a new loop on the Edinburgh-Glasgow line, which would be electrified, were instead outlined. | |
Transport Minister Stewart Stevenson told MSPs that the scheme would achieve intended goals more quickly and at a third of the original price. | |
However, the plans were attacked by Labour and the Liberal Democrats. | |
The Scottish Government said the £650m Edinburgh Airport Rail Link, known as Earl, was costly and that the money could be better spent elsewhere. | |
The SNP ordered a luxury Lexus limo for their first minister - why are they delivering a Reliant Robin rail link for Scotland? Iain GrayLabour transport spokesman | |
Mr Stevenson told the Scottish Parliament there was no way for the current airport project to proceed and said the new plans set out an "ambitious, credible and deliverable alternative". | |
"We believe that our programme for investment in rail will provide a major boost to the wealth of Scotland and its long-term sustainability," he said. | |
"These are strong proposals for the future of Scotland." | |
The plan includes an airport station at Gogar on the Fife railway line, to allow easy access to the airport. | |
Former transport minister Tavish Scott said the Nationalists, along with their "cosy" Tory supporters, were seeking to kill off a strategic transport project. | |
"The SNP's solution is not the direct link that Scots, visitors and business want," Mr Scott said. | |
"A Gogar rail halt is not a direct airport rail link. And it is not the right solution." | |
'Gross incompetence' | |
Also claiming ministers had taken forward a poorer alternative, Labour transport spokesman Iain Gray said: "What this promises is an airport station which isn't at the airport." | |
Mr Gray said he had heard Earl described as a "Rolls Royce solution", adding: "The SNP ordered a luxury Lexus limo for their first minister - why are they delivering a Reliant Robin rail link for Scotland?" | |
Conservative transport spokesman Alex Johnstone welcomed the Earl alternative and attacked the previous Scottish administration for backing the original airport link. | |
"By arrogantly insisting on the most expensive scheme of all and crudely dismissing attempts by the Conservatives and others to suggest alternatives, the Lib-Lab pact stand accused of gross incompetence and an indecent disregard for the public finances," he said. | |
Green MSP Patrick Harvie welcomed the announcement, adding: "With all parties now talking the language of climate change, we must ensure that this amounts to more than platitudes." | |
Mr Stevenson said the government also intended to build a rail link between the Fife and Edinburgh - Glasgow routes, known as the "Dalmeny chord", allowing trains from Scotland's two largest cities to stop at the new airport station. | |
The savings from Earl, said the minister, would be invested in improving rail services, including a planned electrified rail network between Edinburgh and Glasgow and routes up to Dunblane, Alloa and Cumbernauld. |