Borders Railway - who really wants it?

Submitted by actionman on Tue, 27 Mar '12 9.06am

With all the Scottish Government hype over the Borders Railway one actually wonders who really wants it?

If you ask people in the Borders  it is very hard to find people who actually support  the project.   All say it does not even serve the places that need it and the project is also going to upset the environmental lobby.

Are we starting out on yet another disastrous Scottish major project  - is this going to turn out to be another Edinburgh Trams shambles which costs hugely more than was intended?

Time will tell, but it is certainly hard to find enthusiastic supporters of the project at this stage - we seem to have had this all before with Edinburgh trams and everything sounds all far too familiar.

I'm looking forward to taking a train to the borders from Edinburgh for hiking and biking trips.

It's not going to be going at supercharged speeds but anybody who has had to rely on the painstakingly slow bus from places beyond Edinburgh's outskirts like Gorebridge I'm sure will appreciate the option of going by rail.

It should also mean a few less cars (and possibly trucks) in Edinburgh so another reason to support it.

As for the cost: it's a relatively modest project in the scheme of things. The budget is significantly less than the trams, assuming that the Borders rail project stays on track:

Edinburgh to Borders train: £300 million for 35 miles vs Edinburgh Trams £1 billion at current projections for 8 miles.