Policy Research Media Morhamburn

Reports that the new high speed rail-line that will run from Edinburgh to Glasgow might be called the Union Railway have caused a bit of a stir among some nationalist MSPs.

Leaving aside the fact that current estimates for completion are 2030, we can all assume that it won’t be finished till at least 2035 – so why get involved in a dispute over its name? We already have the Union Canal, and most obviously we still have the actual Union. Naming a railway, which will not appear for decades does not seem a worthy issue to start an argument over.

Anyway, perhaps it’s my innate cynicism, the UK’s inability to complete any capital projects on-time or on-budget, or that fact that Edinburgh is currently in upheaval to lay one line of tram track, I can’t help but think that calling this new railway the Union Railway may suit the SNP agenda; it is going to start in London, very slowly make it’s way up through England therefore delivering the benefits to central Scotland last after everyone else; it will no doubt be hugely expensive, late, and possibly obsolete by the time it gets finished.

Maybe Labour should be re-thinking their naming policy.