Edinburgh Waverley Station

Part of the debate – in the Scottish Parliament at 5:48 pm on 31 October 2002.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Scott Barrie Scott Barrie Labour 5:48, 31 October 2002

I will try to keep my comments brief. Like everyone else, I congratulate Sarah Boyack on securing the debate on an exciting, worthwhile and well overdue project.

In her opening speech, Sarah Boyack indicated that the redevelopment of Edinburgh Waverley is on the agenda of many different organisations; however, it is not necessarily at the top of any of those agendas. I hope that if tonight's debate achieves anything, it will help to push the redevelopment of Edinburgh Waverley much further up the agendas of those organisations—particularly the SRA, which has a key role to play in the redevelopment.

We should be honest. Edinburgh Waverley has been redeveloped over the past few years. The facilities in the station are considerably better than they were 20 years ago, but better waiting facilities, bars, coffee shops, a Boots and a WH Smith will not get people home quicker and will not necessarily make their enjoyment of rail travel any better.

Clearly, we have to achieve an increase in the capacity of Edinburgh Waverley. We have heard that that is of national importance. Other members have declared their parochial interest, and it will come as no surprise that I wish to do exactly the same and make a special plea for the hard-pressed commuters north of the Forth who have to endure the Fife circle. I say endure the Fife circle, because this very morning my train was cancelled at 9.05 and there was not another one until 10.05, which I had to wait for at Dunfermline Town station.

Rail capacity improvements have been made. We have seen new stations opened not just in East Lothian, as Susan Deacon said, but at Dalgety Bay and Dunfermline Queen Margaret in Fife.

Platform 18, in particular, at Waverley is a cold, lonely place to have to wait at night, rivalled only by the experience of waiting on platforms 2 or 3 at Haymarket. It is draughty and awful. As Margo MacDonald said, we must have a much more exciting vision of what can be achieved at Edinburgh Waverley and Haymarket stations.

Signalling problems are a key issue. The problem—which I have encountered often—is that trains have to wait outside the Waverley tunnel for other trains to come through before they can get further along the line. The issue is not just the redevelopment of Waverley station; as Murray Tosh said, it is also one of increasing capacity.

The project is long overdue, and I hope that the minister will give a commitment on the part of the Scottish Executive this evening.