A fully-integrated road, rail and air hub should be established in Scotland as part of a £25bn revolution in transport policy, a leading think-tank recommends.
Reform Scotland says the hub, coupled with major improvements to Scotland’s trunk road system, would give the country one of the best transport networks in the world – at a cost of staging two London Olympics.
High-speed rail links to the co-called Grand Central, located around Edinburgh Airport, would make journey times from Glasgow, Edinburgh and Stirling 20 minutes less. The report also calls for further investigation into how a Scotland-wide road-pricing scheme might be implemented.
Speaking at the launch of the Power to connect report on Friday, Reform Scotland chairman, Ben Thomson, said: ‘What we are proposing is an integrated transport system for the next generation. Of course, the costs are high.
‘However, the overall plan can be broken down into separate projects with the creation of the hub and the high-speed link between the hub with Edinburgh and Glasgow being only some £3bn.’
He said current transport strategy was about prioritising a series of local projects, ‘the result of which will give Scotland a disjointed system in future’.
The report backs congestion charging, but to be successful, it must be viewed as a better way of paying for the use of roads rather than a method of increasing taxes on motorists. To bring this about, it would be necessary for the Scottish Parliament to have greater tax-raising powers.
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