Re: Waverley route: not looking good.

On 18 Jan, 19:18, "Dr. Barry Worthington" <sh...@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Jan 18, 5:33 pm, The Real Doctor <ian.gro...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/south_of_scotland/7193937.stm

"A public meeting organised by opponents of plans to reopen the
Waverley line has voted against the scheme.

So it isn't an official meeting, part of a consultation exercise, but
called by opponents (who presumably packed it).

Did I say it was? And I think it's a little unfair to say that it was
presumably packed, since 25% voted in favour of the scheme. Probably
pretty heavily loaded with opponents, of course.


They heard the case both for and against the multi-million pound
development plan.

Interesting to know who the speakers were.

Did you not read the article, then?

"The event on Wednesday was organised by the Borders Party, which has
spoken out against the link. Local councillor Nicholas Watson spoke on
their behalf.

SNP MSP Chris Harvie - who has close ties with the Campaign for
Borders Rail - gave the case in favour of reopening the line".

The Borders Party position is athttp://bordersparty.org.uk/?page_id=21
- in summary, they are against it because

1) It doesn't go all the way to Carlisle

What a damn stupid reason! They object because its only 35 miles long?
But its a start, isn't it? A precedent that can be built on.

I think it's reasonable to ask that if the job is done, it's done
properly. Borders people don;t always want to travel to Edinburgh, and
a link to Carlisle would probably be much better for tourist traffic.
And do remember that Borders Council is expected to pay a lot of money
towards this scheme - is it so unreasonable to take local opinion into
consideration?

3) It will be too slow

They know this for a fact, do they?

The proposed timings have been published for some time, are two clicks
away from the BBC article, have been discussed here at length and do,
indeed, show services which are slightly slower, end to end, than the
current direct bus services.

4) It will encourage over-development and

Yes.....that's let the cat out of the bag. That's probably the real
reason. But hang on a minute, why objections one to three if this is a
key objection?

Why can't there be more than one valid reason to object? And in my
opinion, this is a perfectly reasonable point. The Borders region is
not a wealthy one, and adding easy rail commuting to Edinburgh could
cause a massive distortion in the housing market. Seen the price of
houses in North Berwick recently?

5) It's too much of a financial risk for Borders council.

Why? How much are they being asked to contribute?

They don't know. That's the problem. Once again, the information you
ask for is a single click away from the link I posted, at
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/south_of_scotland/6252734.stm

"Scottish Borders Council is seeking an urgent meeting with the
Scottish Executive over the future of the Waverley line project.

The new government has announced that a financial shortfall in the
proposals will need to be met by councils. "

Bearing in mind that there was always a £30m hole, and that that has
now increased substantially without a rail being laid, I think certain
amount of caution is understandable.


I expct a meeting organised by such a group would be more attractive
to pponents, but it would be interesting to know how widely agreed-
with their position is. The scheme is certainly looking very, very
wobbly - there never was full funding in place and costs have already
risen by (iirc) over 50%.

You base this on the opinion of 206 bloody fools?

No.

Do you characterise all those with whom you disagree as "bloody
fools"? I would like to see the reopening go ahead, myself, but I try
not to be so arrogant as to dismiss all opposition with an ad hominem.

Ian

.

Relevant Pages

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