18 February 2003
Scottish Transport Agency a costly experiment doomed to fail
A Scottish Transport Agency, as outlined in the leak from Labour's manifesto, is an ill-thought-out plan that will see unelected quangos set up to oversee transport across the whole of Scotland. Cllr Eric Ross slammed the proposal saying that public transport and local government needs this costly reform like a hole in the head.
Reacting to the proposed manifesto policy Cllr Eric Ross, Chair of SPT, said:
"Transport does need to be racked up the political agenda and bodies like SPT need to be given the funding to deliver radical public transport plans. What we need like a hole in the head is an unelected national quango that is unaccountable to local people and needs. I will be calling on the Transport Minister to ditch this ill-thought-out proposal and on colleagues throughout the country to oppose this plan.
"SPT has been successful over the last thirty years because it has been locally accountable and has continually fought its corner for improved transport and investment for west central Scotland. The fact that west central Scotland has had SPT means that now we have the biggest suburban rail network outside London, unprecedented levels of initiatives like park and ride, control over fares and timetables and the clout to ensure delivery from ScotRail and other operators.
"A Scottish transport agency would have no local focus or accountability and a bias to the east of Scotland as we have seen over recent months with nearly £1.3 billion given to Edinburgh and a tenth of that amount to Glasgow.
"A Scottish transport agency would mean that the Transport Minister would no longer be accountable as the delivery of projects would be at arms length through an unelected quango.
"All this proposal will do is see yet another massive and unsettling shake up in the transport industry and local government.
"As the leaked document says this proposal will see a massive change with no guarantee of improved service delivery. This will be a costly experiment that will be to the detriment of the travelling public."
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