Chuffing heck! Railway critic now firmly on board

by DOUG COLLIE

Seasoned observers of politics in the Scottish Borders will - until relatively recently - have marked down Conservative John Lamont as a strident opponent and severe critic of the reinstatement of a railway linking Edinburgh and Tweedbank.

During his lengthy stint as a Member of the Scottish Parliament [MSP] for Roxburgh & Berwickshire his attacks on the SNP Scottish Government's Borders Railway project were numerous and vociferous. At one point he even warned the £295 million scheme to reconnect the area with the national rail network was in danger of mimicking the Edinburgh trams debacle.

But after moving from Holyrood to Westminster in 2017 as Member of Parliament (MP) for Berwickshire Roxburgh & Selkirk [including Galashiels and Tweedbank] Mr Lamont seems to have become a fervent supporter of the campaign to extend the line on to Hawick and eventually to Carlisle.

Last week Mr Lamont was, according to local cynics, "at it again", rising in the Commons at Prime Minister's Question Time to enlist the support of PM Theresa May for the continuation of the old Waverley route even though he once claimed even the 30-mile Edinburgh-Galashiels line was not financially viable.

The 'converted' MP's question to Mrs May came in the same week it was announced the line had carried four million people in the three years since its royal opening, approximately double the forecasts on passenger numbers which were included in the scheme's business plan.

It appears this may be the second time John Lamont has flipped sides in the debate on the merits of trains running through the Borders.

According to an online commentator writing in July 2010: "All local politicians have been supportive of the reopening of the Waverley line, that is until yesterday when the Conservative MSP, John Lamont publicly performed a spectacular u-turn. However just over a month ago when John Lamont MSP wanted to be elected to the Westminster Parliament for Galashiels he was in favour of the Railway and now he has flipped his position. Surely he must recognise the impact a railway would have on the economic growth for the Borders?"

There is little doubt that from 2010 until 2017 he maintained his position as a consistent sceptic/critic of the proposed reinstatement of the line as far as the central Borders. At the end of the day the SNP's flagship project was completed on time and within budget.

For the record here are some of Mr Lamont's contributions to the railway debate.

BBC NEWS 2010 - Tory MSP for Roxburgh and Berwickshire, John Lamont, has raised concerns that the £295m plan might see other transport schemes neglected. Mr Lamont warned there was a danger the significant investment could see funds "diverted away" from other public transport improvements.

"Many people remain unconvinced that the new railway to Galashiels will make much difference to most communities in the Borders," he said. "The current Scottish government claims that the Borders railway project will help the whole of the Borders but I know that many feel that the current proposals will only assist the communities in the central Borders around Galashiels."

SCOTTISH PARLIAMENT QUESTION June  2011 – Mr Lamont: "I am sure that the minister will be aware that several bus routes in the Borders are under threat, and he will know that there are growing concerns about the viability of the railway to Galashiels. Does he accept that unless there is an integrated transport network serving all parts of the Borders, fewer passengers will be able to access train services on the Galashiels railway, therefore further undermining its viability?"

NEWS STORY IN THE HERALD NEWSPAPER October 2012 - "John Lamont, Tory MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire and the party's chief whip, told the Herald Scotland: “People are asking serious questions of the Borders Railway, and of the Scottish Government's handling of it, and quite rightly so. I think it has the potential to be another repeat of the trams debacle unless someone gets a grip soon.”

CAMPAIGN FOR BORDERS RAIL POST October 2012 - "Campaigners have got used to misinformation from John Lamont MSP, who describes the new railway as the “Galashiels Railway Project” – ignoring the benefits it will bring to a wide swathe of the Central Borders through bus-rail interchange and park-and-ride – but his latest effort plumbs the depths. A spurious new story in the Hawick News on 19th October ‘revealed’ that the cost of the railway has doubled from the original budget.

"Well, we knew that already, and it’s no different to the way that the cost of all three previous rail re-opening projects in Scotland increased from original budget to completion, ditto the M74 Northern Extension. And we know how much of a success these new railways have been. Bizarrely, Lamont viewed this old news as “yet another blow to the Galashiels Railway Project that would see it delayed once again. With nearly £54 million spent there is still very little to show for it as not a single piece of track has been laid yet.” He obviously hasn’t been at Millerhill since June 2011".

THE GUARDIAN November 2012 - John Lamont, a Tory MSP, has been a continuing critic of the project. He said there was "huge frustration" in other parts of the Borders about its heavy cost and the length of the route. "The more they have looked at it, they say it's not a railway to the Borders, it's a railway to Galashiels. The vast majority of residents won't get any greater access to rail than they do at the moment," he said. That £295m budget had drained spending from other public transport improvements in the region, and could have been better spent on roads and bus links.