Edinburgh Airport Rail Links

Speech by Alison McInnes delivered to The Scottish Parliament on Thu 27th Sep 2007

There has been justifiable disappointment and anger in the chamber this afternoon-and not only from Helen Eadie.

I call on everyone who is ambitious for Scotland to support the EARL project-a project tested through intense scrutiny long before I became an MSP. That scrutiny included more than 200 hours of parliamentary inspection. The project has support across the country.

The First Minister is always keen to let us know who in business has backed his latest announcement. Well, he had better not be looking for much support this afternoon, because the project that his Government has just axed had the backing of the Confederation of British Industry Scotland, the Institute of Directors, the Scottish Council for Development and Industry, the Scottish Chambers of Commerce, Aberdeen Chamber of Commerce, Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce and Scottish Enterprise Fife-to name only a few.

As Mary Mulligan and George Foulkes pointed out, this is a project for all of Scotland, not just for Edinburgh. It would have provided rail links to 62 separate stations across Scotland, linking 64 per cent of the population to its capital.

Scotland deserves better than the second-rate scheme now being put forward by the Scottish National Party. The surface access option now proposed will not deliver enough benefits. Only the tunnel option provided a station adjacent to the airport terminal; it is by far the best scheme. All the other options, including that of a station at Gogar, were considered and rejected earlier.

As Margaret Smith said so well, on 27 June the Parliament approved a motion "to continue to progress the EARL project by resolving the governance issues identified by the Auditor General".

The cabinet secretary responded by saying:

"I also put on record that the Government will pursue the terms of the resolution".-[Official Report, 27 June 2007; c 1192.]

However, the next day the press was briefed that the project was a dead duck, and in July all work was suspended.

Earlier this month, the Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Climate Change made it clear at the Transport, Infrastructure and Climate Change Committee that he had already decided to defy the will of Parliament and to ignore the promises of his cabinet secretary. He said:

"We asked TIE to suspend work on EARL in view of the significant governance issues that exist. That is the way to ... ensure that we do not allow the project to go ahead".-[Official Report, Transport, Infrastructure and Climate Change Committee, 11 September 2007; c 26.]

Yet, in response to my questioning in the chamber later that same week, he said:

"I assure the member that we continue to engage with the governance issues."

When pushed on the point by Des McNulty, the minister said:

"We are firmly engaged in addressing the governance issues that the Auditor General for Scotland identified."-[Official Report, 13 September 2007; c 1734.]

But has the minister really been looking for solutions to these issues? No. He has been engaged in dismantling this project. He has not brought governance solutions to the chamber today; instead he offers this country an inferior scheme. There was not one word in the statement about governance issues. Responding to a question from Charlie Gordon, the minister said that those issues were not capable of resolution. What an admission. How feeble.

As Iain Gray pointed out, it is clear now that the SNP planned to scrap the project all along. Why? Because the SNP has made so many spending promises to the electorate and cannot fund them all.

This new Government will settle for second best. As Margo MacDonald and Cathy Peattie pointed out, that will give out the message that investment in Scotland is a risky business. This Government is all over the place on transport. It has no coherent strategy. It ditches well-developed projects and announces new, untested ones on an ad hoc basis. As Tavish Scott said, it makes policy on the hoof.

Contrary to what Alex Johnstone said, it is the Tory party that is bereft of credibility. The Tories are utterly discredited on this matter. When the project was going through Parliament, they said that they were satisfied that EARL was a higher priority than some other projects and deserved to be seen through to completion. Now they are going to vote with the Government for this half-baked scheme. What backroom deals have been struck to bring about this volte-face?

I urge everyone to support the amendment to the motion, in order to get the real thing-a proper rail link to our capital's airport, and improvement to other rail services. Scotland deserves that. Members should support the amendment.