An Inverness business leader has called for a “step change” to improve rail services on the Highland Main Line (HML) between the city and Scotland’s central belt.
Describing it as “underpinning the economy of the whole Highlands,” Stewart Nicol, chief executive of Inverness Chamber of Commerce, said “every aspect” of the line remained far below what was required for the area.
Mr Nicol’s comments came as the appointment of consultants to carry out a new £75,000 study of route speed improvements on the HML was announced.
Professional services firm WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff has been selected by Transport Scotland to carry out the work and will produce a business case for improvement plans.
The project forms part of the second phase of the HML upgrade. The first phase saw two additional services introduced, which reduced the journey time on the line by an average six minutes.
Mr Nicol said: “I am frustrated at the extremely slow rate of progress of any improvements to the HML.
“I understand the need for business cases to underpin investment decisions, but every aspect of the HML remains far below what is required for the city of Inverness and the whole of the Highlands.
He added that journey times and the standard of rolling stock on the line were “completely unacceptable in the 21st century.”
He continued: “What the region’s business community needs is a step change in the service offering in the quickest possible time-frame, rather than ongoing ad-hoc and in reality barely-perceptible, changes over decades.
Frank Roach of transport partnership Hitrans welcomed the project.
He said: “It is very pleasing to see this much needed project moving forward. There has been been some incremental progress since we produced Room for Growth in 2007, but the region with its 250,000 inhabitants is rightly looking forward to the step change of hourly, faster high speed trains from May 2018.
“We need to have good connectivity that allows for efficient same day travel between the Highland capital and central belt for business, leisure and tourism.
“Freight capacity will also be enhanced, allowing longer trains, thereby reducing unit costs. But we must also look further ahead to the greater prize of a modern 21st century railway that includes electrification and double tracking .”
Douglas Rushforth, project director at WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff, said the company looked forward to seeing how its work will help the next phase of improvements.
