Clyde Metro takes centre stage in Holyrood transport blueprint
January 21 2022
A long trailed ambition to deliver a conurbation wide metro network from Clydebank to Cambuslang has been given the blessing of the Scottish Government's Strategic Transport Projects Review (STPR2).
The Clyde Metro project, first outlined in a report by the Connectivity Commission, has been confirmed as an investment priority alongside 45 other draft recommendations for investment through to 2042.
It calls for a mass transit solution for the Glasgow City Region to improve connectivity in areas currently ill-served by public transport - such as the airport.
Cllr Susan Aitken, leader of Glasgow City Council, said: "Metro will be transformational - reducing social and economic inequalities, delivering on economic growth, better connecting outlying and poorly served communities and incentivising large-scale modal shift from private car to public transport.
"Over the past several decades, modern rapid transit systems like Metro are what Glasgow's comparator cities across the globe have been busy constructing. We cannot continue to be left behind. More than arguably any other single intervention, Clyde Metro can help deliver a vibrant, prosperous, inclusive, and sustainable city region, a transport system fit for our international standing and ambitions."
Other headline grabbing initiatives contained in the report include a bridge or tunnel to connect the Outer Hebrides as well as lower key measures such as electrification of the Fife Circle and Perth to Inverness route; the creation of segregated freeways for cycling and walking and more 20mph zones.
A consultation on the 20-year transport strategy will run until 15 April.
15 Comments
I have grave doubts this will be delivered however and where will the funding come from?
Kitchen sink wishlist drawn up by second rate student politicians and third rate civil servants.
Surely the first thing on the agenda should be the Ladybird book of ferry building?
Glasgow City Metro -- how much of the city will be involved and how much new metro will be built?
Tram trains on existing track won't cut it plus GLA to the city centre on a tram won't cut it regarding the transport infrastructure needed to transform the airport from its current state of hibernation.
The Auld Reekie establishment have achieved their 40 year goal of turning it into a getaway airport for Weegie holiday makers -- consequently a 40 minute ride on a hard seat is not going to cut it.
GLA needs a people mover the PGS station aka GLA Terminal 3.
PGS station needs links to the east using -- the now seemingly forgotten about -- Glasgow Crossrail.
Glasgow Crossrail needs expanded out to Croy / Stirling / Perth and Airdie / Livingston / Edinburgh while Fife would be possible with a bit of imagination.
Use what's already there and not dream up pie in the sky city centre tunnels.
UR has at least called this correctly with their reference to 'Headline grabbing'...its nothing more. Aitken's loose-stool jargon reveals the pre-election intent here.
The Scottish Governments record on delivery of transport and infrastructure is pitiful. Possibly not as bad as their efforts on 'economic inequalities and growth" however, what with slipping living standards, rising poverty gap and falling education standards.
File under spin/ undeliverable promises/ BS.
Can anyone name any socio-economic driven transportation initiatives that have actually been delivered in the last 14 years of this regressive and incompetent gov?
Modal shift -- improve the buses.
The future is BEV powertrains / better road surfaces / better shelters and more timetable information.
Buses -- Glesga vs Auld Reekie / Discuss
PS
The whole process is worthy of derision.
Wish list full of generalities plus hopes and dreams.
Very little on delivery.
The Scottish cringe does policy.
Delivered in last 15 years:
1. Glasgow/Edinburgh - Alloa reopening and electrification. The new rolling stock heralded as the most fault free in the UK.
2. Airdrie-Bathgate reopening and electrification.
3. Glasgow - Cumbernauld electrification.
4. Glasgow - Paisley Canal electrification.
5. Hamilton-Larkhall reopening and electrification.
6. Edinburgh-Borders reopening.
7. Edinburgh Trams phase 1 complete. Phase 2 underway.
8. Glasgow subway modernised and new rolling stock about to enter service.
9. Thornton-Leven reopening work underway. .
10. Glasgow trams. First phase Paisley to Airport already fully funded.
11. Barrhead and East Kilbride electrification agreed.
Criticism is fine but failure to acknowledge achievements signifies unhinged brainless anger and imagination failure not trenchant thoughtful criticism worthy of note.
There is no widespread incompetence amongst local authorities or lack of ambition, regardless of who's in charge. There are structural obstacles that can't be overcome by anyone other than the UK government. Wishlists can be made a reality but they need the budget. For those suggesting incompetence or lack of will, I urge you; take more than a look, take a close-read of the reality of public spending since 2008. Take a look at how this economy has performed and is likely to perform in a post-Brexit world. Take a look at our prospects as things are, and if you don't have any achievable suggestions for how things could be done better within those constraints, you've been gaslit. Welcome to the long haul journey to the second world. It won't be ending any time soon but it'll be marked by whiners who complain endlessly, never suggest anything positive and absolve the truly guilty from blame.
Seemingly we are at the "developing strategies" phase of the game.
In other words corporate welfare for the oxygen thieves in Think Tank land.
Then you have the magic wand angle -- better transport links will magically turn disadvantaged communities into economic powerhouses ...
No / no / thrice no -- if better transport links are provided then it will only encourage the economically active to move there for cheaper rents and the marginalised will be squeezed out into the next generation of disadvantaged communities.
Why not work on the root cause regarding economic disadvantage -- nursery improvements / better schools with more engaged teachers / success seen as the norm / better pathways to work and training?
A tram won't change attitudes and local social norms -- only hard work by state agencies will do that and it will only work if responsibilities are introduced.
Too much effort is put into box ticking and excuse making rather than encouraging / enforcing social norms that the "non disadvantaged" -- whoever they may be -- work too.
State agents acting as pals / friends / siblings hasn't cut it so far.
Better to show leadership / role models / direction and work to overcome the negative influence of the loud attention seekers who currently ruin the current efforts.
A tram is not going to fix that.
SA @ GCC wants to sell us that bridge because her day job is too much for her.
Public transport won't/can't/shouldn't solve societal issues; it might, eventually, get you in or out of town a few minutes quicker but that's about it. It won't create oodles of well paid jobs for people who can't find work elsewhere. It won't make the education system any better. It won't solve drug and alcohol misuse. It won't solve violence and crime against women, children and men. It won't help you to decide if you heat your house or feed your kid.
If you think it's the want of a tram or metro that is holding back the levelling up of social and economic inequalities you need your head looking at.
The big question is now about its sad demise -- just why do the TS establishment want rid of it and why is Political Glasgow -- PG -- allowing it to happen?
TS -- they are riding their north / south tunnel hobbyhorse to death and they don't want GXR wasting their fantasy land economics?
GXR would be cheaper and better?
PG -- promised something else?
Not better but more expensive and PG at the moment likes expensive.
GXR1 / West to East = Ayrshire meets the world / GLA meets the rest of Scotland.
GXR2 / Strathbungo and more = South meets North / links to the WCML open up at the expense of a part of a bus garage.
Transformational but the TS establishment run a mile from it.
You have to ask why?
Warning hobby horse'r at work -- one very squeaky wheel shouting the odds regarding the future.
Aye right -- more like an ego tripper desperate to import other people's arrangement -- poundland S Bahn -- rather than trying to develop a local solution using existing local assets.
Metro -- most of it will be an expensive conversion of existing heavy rail assets to a separate network offering lower performance and little extra reach.
Plus a new south side wiggly route to the airport which will be the object of derision when it becomes apparent that it does many jobs but not the one it set out to do -- airport connectivity.
The future is Crossrail plus the Royston Road Curve.
The future is Doppelmeyr cableway from GLA to PGS aka Terminal 3.
The future is low cost expansion -- tramtrains.
Finneston to Botanics connection.
London Road tunnel.
Bridgeton interchange -- worth the chunky investment.
The trick is an integrated system not separate development.
BRT with electric buses / roadway + roadside investment is where we need to start.
Then sweat the Subway assets / equipment -- look at incremental / low cost expansion.
Use tramtrains to expand the heavy rail network.
Glasgow Metro is an ego trip similar to the old HEx link to GLA.
They have one in London -- DLR / trams -- so we need to do one here -- no / no / thrice no.
Huge changes / challenges on the way for public transport -- CoViD19 / BEV transportation / electric bikes with electric quadricycle contraptions on the march.
Shutting the M8 and Metro techno babble will not sort out these issues.
Plus do you really have a city centre if the office angle degrades and the shopping angle collapses?
A tram won't improve Glasgow's schools -- that might suggest other priorities to the electorate that need addressing over and above all this Metro chatter from a bunch of lazy one club golfers out to spend other peoples money.
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Areas along Paisley Road West already served by 3 Subway stations is wrong route. Any Subway link for stage 1 use Govan.