Making the connection

FORMER train driver Alistair Watson spent 25 years travelling the Ayrshire line to Glasgow and needs no reminding of how things have changed. "It's a country mile ahead of what it used to be like," says Watson, who recalls the past troubles on a route that has undergone a transformation in recent years to relieve the agonies of struggling commuters in the west of Scotland.

But the improvements have produced new problems: a rise in passenger numbers, leading to overcrowding and overflowing car parks. "Now we have to move on to the next phase and give these new rail travellers what they want," says Watson, who made his own transition from engine driver to chairman of the Strathclyde Passenger Transport Authority.

Ayrshire is as good a place as any to start a discussion about Scotland's transport revolution. For those heading anywhere else in Scotland, the Glasgow Central terminus has been an obstacle to achieving what Holyrood ministers call "connectivity" - the ability to get about the country, east to south-west, south-east to north, without the hassle of changing trains or mode of transport.

This is not simply a case of offering Fife fishermen a chance of a day trip to Ayr without having to leave their seats. There are economic benefits and implications for future housing and industrial expansion. Small towns such as Kilwinning and Troon will be within easier commuting distance should the Glasgow Crossrail project be approved. The £187m scheme will enable passengers to bypass the city and travel direct to Edinburgh and beyond.

After years of frustration and anguish over Scotland's traffic congestion and the rail network's inability to cope, there is a broad consensus that the politicians are finally getting their act together to deliver the changes demanded by the travelling public.

Even so, sceptics will only applaud when they have seen results. Many of the projects remain exactly that: projects, plans, proposals. Some despair at the constant round of strategy papers, consultations and committee meetings that hold up developments. Then there is the issue of money and who is to pay. Doubts over Edinburgh Council's ability to deliver the new tram system emerged last week in view of the rising cost, already up from £473m to £714m. The council is due to discuss the plan this week.

Some MSPs have privately questioned the need for the new network of regional transport partnerships (RTPs) and whether they are not just more talking shops in a country already over-burdened with public bodies. Seven will be set up with a new formalised structure and a remit to emulate in some measure the achievements of the SPT, which enlarges its own geography by about 20% when it becomes an RTP on April 1.

The RTPs will draw up local and regional plans but will remain at arm's length from another new agency - Transport Scotland - which got under steam on January 1 to pull the Executive's transport plans together and ensure they are delivered.

While these are new bodies, they will throw together some old partnerships. Watson is soon to chair the SPT's successor body. His former director general at the SPT, Malcolm Reed has taken over as chief executive of Transport Scotland.

"Malcolm and I had a good working relationship. I have no reason to believe that won't continue," says Watson, who believes the creation of these new quangos bodes well for getting things done. After years of treating transport with a degree of disdain, governments at Westminster and Holyrood now seem committed to doing something about it.

"Government has never been good at delivering on transport," he says. But he has also had to fight for recognition at Holyrood that the SPT has done a good job since being created by Barbara Castle's 1968 Transport Act and introduced in the early 1970s as an acknowledgement that regional planning was the best way of solving local problems.

Despite the achievements of passenger transport authorities around Britain, there has been frustration that a fully integrated transport system never developed as it did on the continent - largely, it was argued, because transport itself became a political, and party political, issue, kicked around in the undergrowth of Westminster, where it was regarded as a junior ministry and therefore low in the pecking order when budgets and policies were being drawn up.

The 1985 Transport Act introduced by the Thatcher government liberalised the bus industry and helped Brian Souter and Ann Gloag become millionaires, but its focus was on competition rather than integration, and critics say the free-for-all that has prevailed for 20 years is now a mess and needs re-regulating. Some say that leaving the buses to operate more or less as they please - within the limitations laid down by the Traffic Commissioners - makes it more difficult to plan a proper public transport system. That is why so many buses - some of them empty - hog the streets of Glasgow and Edinburgh.

"It's also why passengers cannot board at some bus stops - there are so many buses they form a queue along the road," says Watson. So do they contribute to the congestion? "Absolutely," he says. "If we could regulate them, we could have a better volume flow. "At times we have over-provision in Glasgow and Edinburgh. The status quo has to change. We need to limit the provision."

One answer would be to impose quality contracts - specifying certain levels of service and frequency, for instance. But Watson would prefer to go further and introduce franchising, as exists in London. He says it would bring an end to current bad practices, such as cancelling services at short notice or two firms charging different fares for the same journey. Because London commuters know when their bus is due and what they should pay, they've begun using them more often, even before the congestion charge was introduced.

But the bus operators are not keen, and statistics show why. Under a franchised system the returns average 9%, whereas they currently manage 14%. Where cash is concerned it is a no-brainer for the bus companies, and it is understood that they have influenced the Executive to leave the current arrangement well alone.

Anyone expecting Transport Scotland to intervene will be disappointed. Reed has no power over operational matters. So the bus chaos will remain one for the RTPs to thrash out with ministers.

Reed's new baby has a more over-arching responsibility: the National Transport Strategy, which is due for public consultation in the next month. It is encouraging a widespread debate, including a conference to be held in Edinburgh on February 1, speakers at which include Iain McMillan, director of CBI Scotland. "For five years of the first Labour government, transport was given no priority whatsoever," says McMillan, whose organisation campaigned vigorously for upgrades of the M8, M74, A8000 and various rail projects.

Some of these are now under way or are being actively considered. "We still have reservations and would like to see things move more quickly, but at least the Executive seems more supportive towards transport."

As it moves into its new Glasgow offices over three floors of the former Railtrack building, Transport Scotland is now overseeing a number of projects which have either been delivered or which it is committed to delivering: the Stirling- Alloa-Kincardine rail line, and Borders railway, which involve the reinstatement of old services. Redevelopment of Waverley Station and building new rail links to Glasgow and Edinburgh airports are also agreed and going through the parliamentary process.

A new shopping list of proposals will follow under something called the Strategic Projects Review: a more detailed outline of how the National Transport Strategy will be delivered. Crossrail is likely to be on this list.

Significant for Reed is that he is surrounded by people who "understand how the industry works". As a civil servant, his job is to do as he's told, not to set policy, but he says he would be surprised if the National Transport Strategy does not emphasise the need to connect different parts of Scotland. That augurs well for supporters of the Crossrail project, which would see some re-laying of lines and the opening of three new stations in Glasgow, with interchange links to the subway.

There is another factor that may swing the decision in favour of Crossrail: Glasgow's bid for the 2014 Commonwealth Games. Watson says the city will have to prove it can move people about efficiently. It might also move other ideas up the agenda, such as the re-opening of the tunnel that runs along London Road to Celtic Park.

Not only would that ease congestion on match days, it would be an important link to the proposed new indoor sports arena nearby.

What else might appear in the strategy? The bullet train for Glasgow and Edinburgh? "It depends what you mean by bullet," says Reed.

Well, direct and very fast. "There may be other ways of achieving something similar," he says.

He seems to be suggesting something direct and fairly fast. Probably non-stop and on the same track, and with the same trains. Clearly, it will come down to money and whether ministers are bold enough to build something new and imaginative.

Transport Scotland will work within the context of the National Planning Framework, appeasing those who believe planners pay too little attention to public transport needs. The Braehead shopping, leisure and residential complex west of Glasgow has no direct rail link and thousands more homes are being built, adding to pressures to the existing road network.

Watson, a councillor for nearby Cardonald, said three councils rejected the original plans, but it got through on appeal to the then Scottish Office. Subsequent talk with the developers and owners about rapid transit schemes appear to have achieved little. "We do need better public transport to that centre but the operator is a reluctant player," he says.

Reed shared his disappointment, saying that industrial sites are too often built near motorway junctions, clogging up the roads. As for Braehead, he said: "We hope lessons have been learned."

He was more positive on Edinburgh's trams. Transport Scotland has committed £375m to the cost, and despite last week's warning that one of the lines will need to be shelved, he said there had been no change as far as he was concerned.

What about the big one? Turning the M8 into a six-lane motorway for its entire length?

He smiles, but reserves opinion. There seems to be no further plan beyond upgrading the Coatbridge section to motorway status. That, of course, is out to consultation.

But Reed is understandably excited about his new job. He's a veteran of the transport planning business but says that the current climate is uniquely positive.

"There is a lot happening in Scotland, certainly more than I have experienced for 25 to 30 years," he says. "So much money is being spent on transport and so many projects are being delivered."