The Friends of the Far North Line
Cairdean Na Loine Tuath
the campaign group for rail north of
Inverness - lobbying for improved services for the local user, tourist and freight
operator
At an all day meeting of the full Highland Council on 12 December one of the items on the agenda was a motion signed by Cllr Trish Robertson and nine other councillors:
For debate on 12-12-24
As we continue to look at public transport options to address Climate Change it is time we considered trains.
Promises made over the years have not been fulfilled. The Far North Line takes up to 40 minutes longer than it did in 2000. If running late this service can be held for 40 minutes at Muir of Ord.
Highland Main Line services to Edinburgh and Glasgow no longer arrive to suit the working day - a service that was introduced in 2000 to aid business.
Transferring waste services to rail will affect capacity on the line. Inverness to Aberdeen improvements to reduce travel time to 2 hours have not been completed.
The Highlands must have fit for purpose railway connections if we are to reduce the number of vehicles on our roads - rail services that enable our business community to be connected to wider markets.
As a council we must become more vocal to ensure we have connections suitable for the economic changes we anticipate as the Green Freeport and all associated business comes to Highland.
I seek support for a discussion session with all interested parties to ensure we bring these issues to the fore.
Signed:
| Mrs T Robertson | Mr A Graham | Mrs J McEwan | Mr J Grafton | Mr D Gregg |
| Mr M Baird | Mrs A MacLean | Mr J Edmondson | Ms M MacCallum | Mr R Gunn |
Listening to the points raised in support of this motion was a reassuring experience. It is clear that many councillors recognise that the region is lucky to have its railways, but that they are seriously lacking in terms of infrastructure, quality of trains and paucity of catering and toilet facilities. The punctuality issue, caused by the lack of sufficient passing places, was at the heart of many comments. The Far North Line in particular was referred to repeatedly as a missed tourism opportunity and an unreliable service for such important needs as attending hospital appointments.
The speakers supported the motion and agreed that The Highland Council needs to be more vocal in raising the issues with the rail industry and the Scottish Government.
No-one spoke against, and the motion was carried.
This is an important step forward, we hope now to see The Highland Council actively putting the case for investment and helping in whatever ways it can to enable a better Highland railway network.
We hope in the meantime that every effort will be made to assist with modal shift to rail when contracts are being let for services such as moving waste to recycling plants. Of course, the present lack of capacity on the Highland railways mitigates against this being possible - something the Scottish Government must address urgently.