Concerns have been raised that Glasgow has 'fallen behind' in terms of transport investment with the news that London's newest underground line is costing over 80 times more than what the Glasgow Subway would have cost to build today.
Transport for London announced recently that the total cost for the new flagship Crossrail project - aka the Elizabeth Line - has risen to £18.9 billion from an initial budget of £14.8 billion when construction began way back in 2009.
By comparison, the final bill for the Glasgow Subway was £1.5m when it opened after five years of construction in 1896, which is the the equivalent of around £212m in today's money taking into account inflation - or 89 times less than the Elizabeth Line.
Glasgow MSP Paul Sweeney says the Elizabeth Line "exposes just how far Glasgow has fallen behind" other major cities in respect of investment in transport infrastructure, and called on the Scottish Government to push forward with plans for the Glasgow Metro - after plans for the multi-billion pound metro system were backed by SNP ministers in January.
He told Glasgow Live: "For years Glaswegians have looked on in frustration as other British cities have seen major improvements to their metro railway and tramway systems, most notably the flagship London Crossrail project, whilst Glasgow’s own, much more modest Crossrail project was cancelled and the land for it at High Street sold off for private residential development. Indeed there have been no new railway lines built in Glasgow since the Maryhill Line was extended in 2005.
“Whilst the proposed Glasgow Metro plan is more than welcome, it will still be many years until we start to see concrete projects taking shape and how it will be financed remains unclear. The fact that the London Crossrail’s Elizabeth Line has now cost some 80 times what the original Glasgow Subway cost to build at today’s prices demonstrates what a forward thinking investment it was at the time, but it also exposes just how far Glasgow has fallen behind other major cities when it comes to modern infrastructure investment, given the original Subway system has never been expanded from its original circular route.
“We urgently need the Scottish Government to agree an ambitious financing package for the Glasgow Metro so we can see the full network developed by the end of the 2030s. Glasgow deserves nothing less after years of inaction from an Edinburgh-centric government.”
Public transport campaign Get Glasgow Moving have been calling for an extension to Glasgow's Subway network for the past six years or so as part of their people-led campaign for better public transport for everyone in the Greater Glasgow region.
Volunteer campaigner Ellie Harrison believes the amount of money being poured into the Elizabeth Line shows just how "chronically underfunded" Glasgow's public transport system is, with a focus having instead been placed on road building projects.
She told Glasgow Live: "SPT is chronically underfunded. It’s received cut after cut from the Scottish Government and just in terms on what we spend on public transport in the city per head, I think it’s 20 times more in London per person.
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“Our public transport system has been chronically underfunded. There’s obviously been numerous proposals to extend the Subway in the past. This should have been done a long time ago but decisions were made to prioritise road building projects.
“You know for the cost of completing the M74, for the cost of that we could have had a massive extension to the Subway and it would have been really beneficial for the city and it would have continued to serve us for another 100 years. That’s the great thing about the Subway we have got, it was built in 1896 but it’s still serving us. It’s very worthwhile investment and it should have been done.”
Ellie also feels that transport bosses in Glasgow should take inspiration from the attitude and vision shown by their counterparts in London in helping to push through such a big project as the Elizabeth Line.
“They’ve been building the Elizabeth Line for like 15 years. That’s been a big, big project that they’ve been working on for a long time. I met with someone who was on the Transport for London board. They are constituted to continuously expand and improve the network and to reinvest profits in doing that. She told me about that. That’s what they are about, this idea of asking, ‘What’s next? What can we build next? Who can we link up next?’ And that’s the attitude that we need in Glasgow.
"We need to be looking at London and the amount of money that’s spent there per capita and be saying ‘Yes, we need the same here’. That’s the attitude we need."
