Greens: key questions remain on Subway modernisation
For immediate release 9 March 2011
Patrick Harvie, Glasgow's Green MSP, today welcomed the announcement that Scottish Ministers plan to invest in the Glasgow subway, but noted that no timescale or level of funding had yet been committed to. The Greens support substantial investment in Scotland' only underground system, which is the world's third oldest network and in urgent need of maintenance and upgrading.
Patrick Harvie MSP said:
"This announcement comes very late from the SNP, without a sum attached or a timescale, and clear funding should have been allocated in this year's Scottish Budget. Still, better late than never, and the next Scottish Government, whichever parties are involved in it, must surely now act quickly and work with SPT to put a proper plan in place.
"The Glasgow subway is much-loved and well-used, but it could be so much better. There are existing additional tunnels the taxpayer is paying to maintain which could be used to extend the network, the infrastructure and stations are creaking, and we need to see a proper Oyster-style smart card to across the public transport system. Those would have been Green priorities, not massive funding for dead-end motorways and an unnecessary additional Forth road bridge."