| Comment | A subway extension has been off the agenda since 2009ish (costed at £2billion +, SPT opted just to modernise the existing circle and order new trains).
A subway extension isn't going to happen unfortunately. Not soon, and possibly not ever.
SPT wrote this report knowing the wider lay of the land though - that the proposed metro/tram system has been approved by Transport Scotland in its initial STPR2 publication, likely to be 100% confirmed later this year by GCC. This'll get backing and funds from the Scottish Govt and soon get underway.
The "metro" project isn't anything directly to do with SPT, not yet anyway, so while that's slowly coming over the horizon, there's really no cause for them to bring any new half baked infrastructure proposals to the table.
Instead, understandably, this report focused on what is sort of in SPT's remit (a joint remit, shared with Transport Scotland).
I actually think it's a very important moment to see SPT put it out in black and white: they want an integrated transport network, starting with buses, but extending to all modes.
With all the key groups (SPT, GCC, the Connectivity Commission) singing from the same hymn sheet, I think the prospects of these things happening are starting to look very good. |
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