Border Telegraph | News | It's the end of the line for railway says Edgar

Friday, 25th July, 2008

Published: Wednesday, 12th March, 2008 09:00

It's the end of the line for railway says Edgar

By Ally McGilvray

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A FORMER transport chief who championed the return of the railway to the Borders this week revealed he fears the beleaguered project has hit the buffers.

Gordon Edgar, who held the transport portfolio at Scottish Borders Council up until the local elections last year, warned repeated delays and spiralling costs threatened to derail the restoration of a 35-mile section of the former Waverley Line, between Tweedbank and Edinburgh.

He believes the much-vaunted scheme has reached the end of the line after transport minister Stewart Stevenson admitted construction work might not start for another three years and a new funding package was still to be put in place – despite assurances from the Scottish Government it was full steam ahead.

The local businessman, who represented Old Selkirk as an independent councillor, also voiced concerns over the loss of the original funding and spiralling costs of the project, now estimated at almost £300 million.

Mr Edgar, who was in the public gallery at the Scottish Parliament to listen to the announcement last week, told the Border Telegraph: “With all the uncertainty, I feel there may well be a time when they (The Scottish Government) say: ‘Well, it’s taking so long, we’ll just not bother’.

“I came down the road wondering what was going on. The SNP are the party who are supposed to be doing everything for Scotland but if you haven’t got an SNP MSP they don’t seem to be interested. And if that is the reason for this ‘non-statement’ I think it’s wrong.”

Mr Edgar claimed council leader David Parker looked ‘gobsmacked’ when the announcement was made but was putting a ‘brave face’ on it.

He added: “I’m really disappointed, especially after all the work that’s been put in for the folk in the Borders.”

Speaking at this month’s meeting of Galashiels and Langlee Community Council, former SBC leader Drew Tulley insisted the Borders deserved a railway and the project must go ahead to put the region’s economy back on track.

But opponents of the plans argued the project was becoming an ever-increasing waste of money.

Councillor Nicholas Watson, of the Borders Party, said: “One of the depressing things about last week’s announcement was the delay in the start of this programme and I feel that we are going to go on spending literally millions of pounds doing more surveys and studies, and working out how it is going to be funded.

“So even if it hits the buffers we are still going to waste an awful lot more money in the meantime.”

He added: “Last year we did some calculations and discovered they had already spent £20million getting it to where it isn’t effectively, and that figure might be an awful lot higher already.”

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