Alan Simpson: The new £144m electric rail line without enough trains

SOMETIMES I sit and ponder some of the biggest questions that exist, such as is there life after death and how deep is the sea.Actually I made that bit up as the questions that I usually find myself thinking about are how long does it take to build a CalMac ferry and will the A9 ever get dualled?Recently. I’ve been pondering another big question, namely what can you buy for £144 million?A couple of decent midfielders for an English Premier League team would be one and I suppose you could conceivably get quite a large swathe of Perthshire too and still have a bit of change leftover.However, it transpires that what you cannot guarantee with that sort of money is a better rail service.This week will see the re-opening of the line between Glasgow and East Kilbride reopen after being shut for since January. The electrification of the line is part of the Scottish Government’s plans to decarbonise Scotland’s rail passenger services by 2035. Since January, the route has been transformed with full electrification of the route, new stations at Hairmyres and East KilbrideThe work has also improved access at Giffnock, with a new accessible footbridge and a new station entrance at Clarkston.The existing track has also been lowered near Busby, Clarkston and Giffnock stations so that overhead line equipment can be accommodated under some bridges.As a result of work on the track there have been no trains on the line since January 25.So this week, commuters, and there are a considerable number along the route, could realistically expect to see an increased service.One of the promises made at the start of the work was that a double track would allow services to be increased from two every hour to four.In the evenings, after 7pm, the service is reduced to just one an hour which is unacceptable for a line that serves one of Scotland’s largest towns with a population of around 75,000.It also passes through the densely populated suburbs of Glasgow on the way so the service was not really fit for purpose given the numbers of potential passengers.So, I’m sure there would be an air of anticipation from regulars who have been forced to get the bus since January when the new timetables were issued. Unfortunately they would have been in for a nasty surprise as the timetable appears to be exactly the same as it was before the line was closed.Which does rather beg the question - what was the point?After spending £144milllion on an upgrade then passengers have a right to feel a little short-changed by having to suffer the same poor service, in the same old trains than before.At least you would hope the trains will have all been hoovered in the interim.Last week it was revealed that cost has risen to almost £144 million.The new figure was presented in a letter to Richard Leonard, convener of Holyrood’s public audit committee by Alyson Stafford, director general of the Scottish Exchequer, the civil servant responsible for the Scottish Budget including tax, spending and measuring performance.The original estimate for the work said it would cost between £100m and £120m. The figure was later revised to £139.8m.Ms Stafford: “The Original Business Case (OBC) outlined that total project cost was estimated to be £100m to £120m and that it was estimated to be operational in December 2024. “The Full Business Case (FBC) outlined that total project cost was estimated to be £139.8m and that it was estimated to be operational in December 2025....The Anticipated Final Cost is now £143.7 million which is an increase to that at FBC and as previously reported.”She went onto say the additional cost was mostly due to Transport Scotland having to contribute towards the delivery of a car park at a new relocated station in Hairmyres in East Kilbride.The re-opening of the line will be welcome to the tens of thousands of people who have faced gridlock on the roads at various spells during the work. A series of road improvements took place simultaneously while the track was electrified.The result was apparently total chaos which has a serious side as ambulances were struggling to access Hairmyres hospital at one point because of the traffic.But the fact that there is no change to the timetable will be scant consolation to the passengers.Electric trains are not due to be operational until December while the works are completely finished. Hopefully then a new timetable will be introduced and the whole point of the works will become clear.However, no new electric trains have been ordered by Scotrail so, presumably, the service will be run by rolling stock that is currently being used on other parts of the network.This will inevitably see capacity being reduced elsewhere so that services can run on the East Kilbride line.Scotrail has already admitted it cannot guarantee that all services will be electric when the new timetable is introduced in December, which kind of begs the question what is the point? Why spend millions electrifying railway lines and then not buying new trains?But this, perhaps, sums up the current sticking plaster approach to Scotland’s transport system that has been allowed to happen in recent years.Transport Scotland, of course, has form for this in the ferry network with new vessels being ordered for ports that cannot accommodate them and are not yet upgraded.Elsewhere, ferries are taken off routes to fill holes elsewhere which leaves disruption pretty much everywhere in the islands.Now, two major Glasgow commuter lines will have been electrified in recent years - to East Kilbride and also to Barrhead - but no rolling stock appears to have been ordered to run on them.Scotrail has the oldest fleet in the UK and last took delivery of 70 electric trains in 2018 when the network was in private hands, operated by Abellio.Plans were announced to purchase new suburban trains in 2022 followed by replacements for rural lines and high speed trains.Unfortunately, these have not yet materialised which shows the expensive folly that nationalisation could well become.Private firms were obliged to introduce new fleets as part of their franchise agreements but this doesn’t seem to be the case in public hands.As has been shown with the ferry network, Transport Scotland and ministers have form for complacency when it comes to providing a fleet that’s fit for purpose.Sadly, the rail network seems to be going that way too.

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