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What is Crossrail Glasgow?
Crossrail Glasgow is the ‘missing link’ in Scotland’s national rail network. The project will close the gap across the river Clyde, allowing for a host of new rail connections to be made across Strathclyde and the rest of the country.
This is a project of national significance as it will enable services from Edinburgh, Perth, Aberdeen and Inverness to connect to a whole range of new destinations. Crossrail Glasgow also has the potential to improve access to Glasgow and Prestwick International airports for travellers from across the country as well as those in the West of Scotland.
An added bonus will be much better connections across the Strathclyde region. At present, there are no direct rail routes running from the southwest to the northeast of the city. Crossrail Glasgow will allow these travel options to become a reality, enabling direct services to potentially run from East Kilbride, Barrhead, Kilmarnock and Ayrshire to the north of Glasgow and beyond.
The scheme makes sense for a number of economic and social reasons:
- Crossrail Glasgow will help boost the economy of the Glasgow city region by introducing new routes to a network already currently running at capacity in many areas.
- The new services will help cut road congestion and the associated costs to business, as well as potentially making Glasgow Airport, Edinburgh Airport and Prestwick International more accessible and making business travel much easier.
- Crossrail Glasgow will also help meet the objective of reducing car use by joining up journeys between the Subway and Park and Ride
- Crossrail will integrate the Glasgow Clyde Gateway, the Clyde Waterfront and Ayrshire into the national rail network – areas which have been highlighted as a national priority for regeneration.
The Crossrail Glasgow project is expected to cost around £120m, a modest figure for a scheme which guarantees such effective results. This scheme is also be deliverable by 2012 making it an important contribution to Glasgow’s 2014 Commonwealth Games bid, allowing sportspeople and spectators to travel from across the country to sporting venues by rail.
A wide scoping exercise has been conducted and has shown that that this project can be delivered on time and on budget. Research has shown that all of the other options, such as a tunnel, will be too expensive, too disruptive and have a high degree of risk and uncertainty attached to them.
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What will Crossrail Glasgow involve?
The proposals being put forward by SPT will involve:
- Building three new stations at Glasgow Cross, the Gorbals and West Street
- Moving High Street Station further east from the city centre and completely rebuilding the station
- Investing in signalling and the electrification of rail services to deliver faster journey times and better reliability
- Laying just under 2km of new track to connect the rail lines in the north and south of the city
- Upgrading and restoring 3.5km of track
- Building new sidings at Kelvinhaugh to the west of the city centre
The proposed new stations will have massive regenerative effects on the areas they will serve, helping combat social exclusion by allowing improved public transport access to workplaces, leisure destinations, and even making visiting friends and family easier.
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Crossrail for Business
Crossrail will provide vital connections for the economic hub of the West of Scotland. The area has a population of 2.14 million people. Studies show almost half of workers in the Glasgow City Council area travel from outside the city boundary to their workplace each day. As road congestion worsens and the current rail network reaches capacity, Crossrail will be vital in providing new and alternative travel-to-work options.
Crossrail is essential to keep Glasgow competitive and to ensure that the transport structure is in place to support Glasgow and the west of Scotland’s ambitious growth plans. Glasgow’s financial sector is growing and the regeneration of the Clyde waterfront is moving at a fast pace. However, Glasgow will fail to capture the benefits of regeneration if we don’t have a transport system in place that makes travel with the south west, north and east easier and quicker.
The scheme will also allow easier access to the city region’s colleges, universities, shopping centres and business parks. With increased connections to both Glasgow and Prestwick International airports from across Scotland, business travel by air will be much easier. Crossrail will improve links between routes going into both Glasgow Central and Queen Street stations which will save time and improve reliability.
Research shows that people are travelling more and willing to go further for work and leisure. The improvements in infrastructure associated with the Crossrail Glasgow project will mean new interchanges with existing Park & Ride schemes and the Subway network. This will result in fast, easy, hassle-free travel options being more widely available. This supports many of the Scottish Executive’s key aims, including the goal of reducing car use and tackling road congestion.
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Crossrail for Leisure
As well as benefiting business and industry, Crossrail will allow improvements such as greater access to shops, cinemas, and bars/restaurants. The project will also allow a number of tourism benefits, like greater access to both Glasgow International and Prestwick International Airports for travellers from Edinburgh, Central Scotland and the North. Scottish tourism could also benefit in the form of better access to the Ayrshire seaboard towns and villages.
Glasgow is a city passionate about sport and we’ve got some of the best sports grounds and facilities in the country. However, in some cases they’re not always easy to get to. All too often, fans have to drive through the city and that can obviously lead to problems in terms of traffic and queues. The Crossrail Glasgow plans will enable those travelling by train from all across Scotland to gain direct access to a number of stations near our top sporting venues.
The improvement to rail services will help the city cope with the surge in sports fans expected for the 2014 Commonwealth Games, should Glasgow win the bid. Crossrail Glasgow also promises to make journeys a much more pleasant experience and ensure that athletes, officials and spectators are much less likely to be hit by traffic delays and congestion.
Glasgow will soon be home to sportscotland – the national agency for sport. In order to stay top of the league of sporting destinations, Glasgow requires world-class transport links. Projects like Crossrail Glasgow will make it easier for those of all ages and those without cars to reach destinations like Hampden Park.
The National Stadium at Hampden hosted the Champions League Final four years ago and will this year stage the UEFA Cup Final. Significant improvements to the transport infrastructure can only help our cause in attracting similar events in the years to come.
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When will Crossrail happen?
Many options for Crossrail have been considered over the last 30 years, all apart from the current proposal have been rejected for various reasons. In putting together the latest proposals SPT looked closely at other options, however they all faced significant obstacles which would need considerable time, money and effort to resolve.
The SPT proposals
- are technically feasible, and supported by grounded technical research
- have the potential to increase service options by better utilising existing infrastructure
- can be delivered by 2011/12
- are modest in cost
Based on these facts, the outline timetable for progressing Crossrail Glasgow is
Detailed development of the project and the economic case
SPT has already appointed an engineering consultancy to develop the detailed plans required to take Crossrail to the next stage of approval. This includes undertaking a Scottish Transport Appraisal Guidelines (STAG) study and developing the project costs in more detail.
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Early 2007 |
Preparation of formal documents and final planning
Currently Parliament requires that major transport projects be scrutinised by a Private Bill committee of MSPs. This is a way of ensuring that all aspects of the project have been considered fully. Crossrail may be considered under a new process but will still require a form of approval from the Scottish Parliament.
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2007-08 |
Business case and procurement
Once parliamentary approval has been received, the business case will then be finalised. This will outline the costs and funding methods for the project, and will require final approval and funding from Scottish Ministers. Contractors will then be appointed for the final design and construction.
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2008-09 |
Construction
It is anticipated that construction will take two to three years.
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2009-2011/12 |
Opening
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2011/12 |
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