A petition, signed by many who would benefit from the rail link based in Winchburgh and the surrounding area, was delivered to Parliament
Residents of Scotland’s fastest-growing town have delivered a petition of more than 2000 signatures to MSPs calling for the Scottish Government to “name a date” for the delivery of a vital train station.
An independent impact report published by Systra into the viability and benefits of a station in Winchburgh on the main Edinburgh-Glasgow railway line found that that opening a station in the West Lothian town could remove an estimated 1658 car journeys from roads every day, replacing slow journeys on congested roads with sustainable train journeys lasting less than 15 minutes,
Graham Campbell, chair of Winchburgh Community Council, said: “The time is now for those in power to act on this proposal. We keep hearing that this generation has little time to react to climate change and to take action to reduce carbon emissions.
He continued: “We are determined that the community can benefit from a sustainable transport solution as obvious as a rail station on the Edinburgh to Glasgow mainline. As far as I’m concerned, we don’t want to miss this opportunity to take 500,000 cars off the major Central Belt motorways each year. That part of the railway station lies with the public sector, not with the developers of Winchburgh.
Sue Webber, MSP for Lothian, said: “There is no question the thousands of homes to be built at Winchburgh are badly needed, but what will effectively be a new town badly needs modern transport links or its population will be strangled by congestion, unable to reach places of work or vital services like hospitals, or indeed the national rail network, without being snarled up in queues of traffic.
Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, said: “The Winchburgh community has campaigned for many years for a much-needed train station and I have been raising this for almost two years at the Scottish Parliament. We must all work together to secure a station for the people of Winchburgh, who were sold homes on a belief it would be a commuter town. I cannot understand why the Scottish Government has ignored my requests to this extent so many times.
Scottish National Party Glasgow Edinburgh Environment Transport Linlithgow
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