CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Debate!
Transport, Budgets, news
(9 posts)-
Posted 13 years ago #
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The news on the sleeper grant is most welcome. Clearly Danny Alexander has come under pressure from his constituents!
Extraordinary though that the Scottish government proposes to cut sleeper services back, and requires cajoling by Westminster to rethink. Meanwhile, more roads seems to be the priority yet again!
"Stretches of the A9 have been the scenes of a number of fatal and serious accidents."
Of course, that must be the road's fault. Nothing to do with people driving too fast then.
"The A9 Perth to Inverness Economic Appraisal Study estimated journey times could be cut by 22 minutes."
Presumably this means people will be driving even faster once it's a dual carriageway. Will this reduce accidents? Depends how the junctions are designed: time will tell.
Posted 13 years ago # -
@crowriver, you're right to question how the junctions will be constructed, and I do hope there are regulations to insist on designs to aid incident prevention. But I personally believe that impatience of drivers to being unable to over take does lead to risk taking, which on a single carrageway can be more dangerous than on a dualed carrageway. Yes this is the faults of drivers but everyone is an individual and has differing moods varying through the day. The only way one would guarrentee minimal accidents would be to remove the driving control from the driver, i.e automated cars. I can't see this happening anytime soon in Scotland.
Posted 13 years ago # -
The sleeper article doesn't really make any sense. New rolling stock in the UK is not directly paid for by the Government, but by the private sector and leased by train operators. The Government (UK and Scottish) can be involved in specifying the rolling stock, as it has a life longer than one franchise. It also indirectly funds lease payments through subsidy to franchise holders - but doesn't buy any rolling stock itself.
ScotRail spend £86m a year on leasing rolling stock - much of which was owned by BR and sold at a super knock down price to the private sector, i.e. the taxpayer has paid for it several times over.
Posted 13 years ago # -
@Morningsider, one of the factors which may cause Transport Scotland to reprieve sleeper services is improved rolling stock. If there is cash to subsidise refurbishment or replacement of the sleeper cars, surely it's just a matter of finding the mechanism to pay for the improvements?
Posted 13 years ago # -
The problem with people overtaking crazily on the A9 is that it effects the innocent people coming the other way.
Friends of the wife's family died when they overtook into oncoming traffic but also killed the people coming the other way that they crashed into.
It's also, from our point of view, not such a big deal because there is already a segregated facility to inverness, dubious quality though it may be.
Posted 13 years ago # -
crowriver - true, in which case the SNP has played a blinder in getting the UK Government to cough up for improvements to the sleeper.
Posted 13 years ago # -
@Morningsider. except that the condition of the grant is that the Scottish government has to match the grant. Still, a good deal. Potentially 100 million's worth of rolling stock improvements!
Posted 13 years ago # -
'Dr Richard Dixon, director of environmental group WWF Scotland, said: "The sleeper service is a vital tool in reducing the number of flights within the UK.
"The UK government's offer of £50m is welcome but it turns the sleeper debate into a political battle.
"Scottish ministers' assurances that they are fully committed to the sleeper are very welcome but a little hollow since the official ScotRail consultation clearly leaves room for the total demise of sleeper services as one of its options."
He added: "It would be a great shame if a potential major upgrade to the sleeper fell victim to politics while big road schemes plough on regardless." '
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-15933988
Posted 13 years ago #
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