A Green MSP has called for politically motivated railways to prepare Scotland for independence. Laura Moodie, who was elected to represent South Scotland last week, said building new lines that avoid ‘going into England’ would ‘wean us off reliance on UK infrastructure’.
Criticism from opposition
Finlay Carson, the re-elected Scottish Conservative MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, said: ‘This is more proof that the Greens aren’t a serious party. The rail network across the south of Scotland is wholly inadequate and the blame for that lies squarely with the SNP government, who have failed to upgrade and improve it.’
He said Ms Moodie ‘should reflect on her party’s failure to influence the Nationalists when in government, rather than trying to turn it into a petty argument for independence’.
Moodie's proposal
Ms Moodie lives near Kirkcudbright, making her nearest railway station Dumfries, from where a train journey to the East Coast involves going via Carlisle. She made her comments on the Scottish Independence Podcast last month.
The Bradford-born separatist said: ‘At the moment, quite a lot of my railway journeys would involve me going down to England to then get back up north. If we extended the Borders line, and if we reopen the Dumfries-Stranraer line, particularly if we followed a very specific route, it would for the first time enable a cross-country rail route from Edinburgh, Rosyth, the ports up there, to Cairnryan.’
‘[It] would give us that crucial through-route for freight between European hubs, between Scandinavia and Ireland, via Scotland, without going into England. If we’re serious about building an independent Scotland, we need to be thinking seriously about these kind of infrastructure projects that wean us off reliance on English or UK infrastructure’.
Liberal Democrat response
Scottish Liberal Democrat communities spokesman Willie Rennie said: ‘Most Scots will have friends or family south of the Border, so they will find it pretty weird that the Greens are so into nationalism that they don’t even want to use rail links that have touched English soil – rail links ought to be driven by the needs of the economy and where communities are, not a desire to isolate Scotland from its neighbours.’
The Scottish Greens were asked for comment on Ms Moodie’s railway idea.
