The director of rail franchising with Transport Scotland at the time of EGIP has a 1914 'bible' in Railway Economics plus a good grounding in doing this properly
For the second time in my career I was working to reopen a railway line in 2005 when I was overseeing the ground survey core log drilling on the 16 miles of cycle route I had delivered in 1993
With the clear access to slam down track on a railway whecih didn#t need to fit around existing services we got a second electrified route Edinburgh to Glasgow with some small extras like the connection at Anniesland from the Kelvindale route so that the tunnels and the main high level station at Glasgow Queen Street could be totally closed for 6 months and trains from EDB via FKK could loop around through GLQ low level whilst trains from the North were diverted into GLC high level
At the same time Winchburgh Tunnel was also upgraded with the serious challenge thet the invert of the tunnel was pure mudstone which was basically gloop which was a bottomless 'pit that the railway had to float over
One benefit of the EGIP work being done in stages has been the learning curve for the teams delivering faster & cheaper with each stage, and the advance work of fitting in little details to accommodate structures and equipment with other routine maintenance
The Paisley Canal electrification was a handy bit of practice with other little details
EGIP is still not totally complete BUT the land and the designs to build the Almond chord are already sitting on the shelf, with the developer at Winchburgh keen to see a stations built (which hopefully they'll pay a bit for (based on the higher prices thay can get for houses with a train service to Edinburgh & Glasgow. The connection to the Fife lines will be right at the location for the old airport buildings at Turnhouse, and the West flank housing developments for Edinburgh, an ideal location for an airport station right beside the long stay parking and the airfreight operations
The Almond chord would also ease the hammering of the tunnel and viaduct built in 1842 and now carrying trains weighing 2-3 times more and travelling 2-3 times faster. A case for a major joint venture project that has a groups of stakeholders delivering the whole deal
We're already seeing this as each element is added - to Barrhead , to East Kilbride, to Dalmeny, to Kilmarnock and so on
Remember too that the Royal Scotsman runs to Boat of Garten using the Speyside Railway and other private railways might also offer through trains with special services that don't need to raid the public purse
For the Borders rail the route can be secured with a cycle path plus the private railway on a section of the old route North of Newcastleton. A new alignment near Melrose could take the railway right through the Borders Hospital with a station and bus interchange delivered as a single coherent detail & possibly opened as a short extension from the current Tweedbank terminus
Lots to deliver with some canny Scots pragmatim?
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