Minister insists north-east rail link improvements are "on track"
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Scotland’s transport minister has insisted a long-delayed £200 million scheme to improve Aberdeen to central belt rail is “on track”.
But doubts remain over whether a 20-minute reduction in passenger journeys will ever materialise, MSPs heard today.
North East region MSP Douglas Lumsden asked the Scottish Government for an update on the Aberdeen to Central Belt Rail Enhancement Project, which was named in 2016 as part of a £226 million top-up to the £300 million Aberdeen City Region Deal, jointly funded by the UK and Scottish governments.
This add-on included a previously pledged £200m to improve east coast rail between the city and Edinburgh/Glasgow, first mentioned by then transport secretary Stewart Stevenson in 2008. These improvements were both envisaged to reduce journey times by 20 minutes.
Scottish Conservative Mr Lumsden said: "Sixteen years of the SNP in power and the people of the north-east are still having to put up with a second-class rail service.
"The new trains for the north-east are 40-year-old Diesel 125 castoffs.
"No chance of electrification to Aberdeen, no chance of dualling at Usan and I would suggest no chance of reducing journey times to the Central belt by 20 minutes by 2026, something that the local Chamber of Commerce has said is vital to economic growth in the area.
"So would the Minister agree with me that rail services to Aberdeen and the north-east are being neglected by this SNP government?"
Ms Gilruth suggested renovations at Aberdeen station, a new station at Kintore and the redoubling of the Inverurie route are proof of her government’s rail spending credentials.
The former two were paid for by partnerships with Network Rail, the Railway Heritage Trust, Serco, Nestrans and others.
She said: "The ministerial commitment to spend £200 million on enhancing the Aberdeen to central belt rail corridor was made alongside but not as part of the Aberdeen City Region deal for delivery within the same 10-year timescale.
"Some concerns were expressed at a relatively late stage by the Network Rail operations team last year.
"Those concerns which have since been resolved have led to a delay in Network Rail formally signing off the option selection process. "Nonetheless, good progress is now being made and the project remains on track."
Mr Lumsden said later: “The Minister was very selective in her wording – no mention of journey time reduction so that commitment is highly dubious.
"And she has also tried to glibly pin the delay on Network Rail.
“But the responsibility to spend this money and get the journey times reduced is Ms Gilruth’s, along with transport secretaries and ministers stretching all the way back to Stewart Stevenson in 2008.
“That £200m for the north-east has been repackaged by successive SNP governments since then, and it has once again been kicked into another parliamentary term.”
