CONTINUED appreciation of a good rail link to Prestwick Airport should, like the relentless expansion of Manchester Airport's rail links, give added impetus to the Strathclyde Passenger Transport Authority's proposal for a direct spur line into Glasgow International Airport.
Maximum exploitation of both Prestwick and a Glasgow Airport rail link would be massively assisted by early implementation of the short Glasgow CrossRail link, to overcome the handicap of having to change trains/stations within central Glasgow.
Completion of Glasgow's ''missing link'' rail line (an SPTA/Railtrack Bill is currently before Parliament for construction of CrossRail) would allow rail services from Prestwick or Glasgow Airports to run directly to a wide variety of destinations on the north Clydeside electrified network - eg, Milngavie, Helensburgh, Airdrie, etc, and also on to the ScotRail intercity lines serving Falkirk, Edinburgh, Fife, Dundee and Aberdeen/Inverness.
The currently proposed ''hub interchange'' at Glasgow Cross (an adjunct to inner-city rejuvenation of that area) is intended to give convenient one-stop transfer on to the expanding Lanarkshire rail network, with the other proposed West Street interchange directly accessing into the Cathcart Circle, Neilston, and East Kilbride lines and the Glasgow Underground.
Hopefully that dynamism which is facilitating the spectacular renaissance of Prestwick Airport will now combine with Strathclyde Passenger Transport, Railtrack, and ScotRail to secure funding for the Glasgow CrossRail line, giving domestic users and visitors access to the benefits of a truly integrated Trans-Scotland rail network.
K A Sutherland,
Research Officer,
Railway Development Society
(Scotland), 53 Cochrane Street,
Glasgow. May 3.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article