SCOTTISH business groups are planning a joint campaign to back plans for a £30bn high-speed rail link between London and Scotland.
The country's main business organisations, including the Scottish Chambers of Commerce, the CBI, the Institute of Directors and the Federation of Small Businesses, will meet in Glasgow on Friday to mastermind the campaign which will press for a new
rail line capable of cutting journey times between London and Edinburgh to three hours. Also involved will be Scottish Financial Enterprise, Virgin Trains and the Edinburgh and Glasgow Chambers of Commerce.
The groups want both Westminster and Holyrood to pursue serious research into the feasibility and cost benefits of a separate line after rail minister Tom Harris and SNP transport minister Stewart Stevenson met to discuss the idea for the first time at the end of May. Although the meeting was seen as an important step forward in the plans, sources close to the negotiations say little has been achieved since, and Westminster would rather fund improvements to the current rail network.
The business groups have decided to put on a rare united front as they say a separate line, capable of accommodating Eurostar trains, would significantly improve Scotland's ability to do business with the rest of the UK, as well as continental Europe.
They argue that faster rail travel is particularly important after British Airways announced plans to axe its early morning flights from Glasgow at the end of last month - a move which many fear other airlines will soon follow.
Andy Willox, Scottish policy convener of the FSB in Scotland, said: "Good transport infrastructure is vital to the health of an economy – they're not called arterial routes for nothing. And Scotland's poor links to the rest of the country are harming our competitiveness. How can we compete for contracts with companies based in, say, London, if we can't get to a 9am meeting without the leaving the night before?"
Graham Bell, spokesman for the Scottish and Edinburgh chambers of commerce, said research suggests that for every pound invested in the project, the UK would receive £2.50 back in increased income. "The beauty of this thing is that it provides cross-border benefit."
He said it was inexcusable that in the same time the UK had built a 92km high-speed stretch between London and the channel tunnel, Spain has constructed a 1,900km high-speed network.
Bell added that the private sector was likely to make a financial contribution. "It has to be a partnership between the public and private sectors," he said.
