BY WAY OF COMPARISON...

In Scotland, Rail transport is seen as being a vital component of Scotland’s success, with improvements to the rail infrastructure being seen as important to helping to supporting economic growth, strengthening connections and providing sustainable alternatives to road and air travel. Here in Wales, if might as well be an afterthought.

The SNP Government has invested record levels in rail – opening 2 new passenger lines and 7 new stations; it has provided 38 new trains and increased train services by 10%. Since 2004 rail freight traffic has grown substantially and passenger numbers have increased by 30%.

At the moment, rail services in the UK are provided through a flawed (in my opinion) private sector model. The Scottish rail network is however, entirely funded by the Scottish government and Scottish Ministers, and despite this infrastructure of rail remains a reserved matter.

The SNP Government has several times written (as recently as February and May of this year) to UK Ministers, making clear that the Scottish Government could achieve better outcomes for Scottish passengers if Scotland had overall responsibility for rail. The UK Westminster Government has chosen not to respond to the repeated approaches from the SNP Government.

Last week the Scottish Government announced a £5 billion programme of investment in Scotland's railways (between 2014 and 2019), which will support the delivery of franchised passenger services and enable Network Rail to operate, maintain and enhance the network. The programme will also continue to deliver the Edinburgh Glasgow Improvement Programme (EGIP) and the Borders Railway project.

Here in Wales... the Labour in Wales Government will...hmm, argh, yes - the defining silence speaks volumes does it not. The only thing that the Labour in Wales Government has tried to do in the last year is to try to link the valleys electrification project with plans to electrify the main line all the way from London (Severn Tunnel) to Swansea.

This is of course is one way of avoiding having to do anything. Little else has been suggested or hinted at, the people of the Ebbw Valley and Newport may have to wait a long time before the final bit of the Ebbw Vale line to Newport is approved, let alone gets a start date.

FLASHMAN AND THE PANDAS

It's an interesting fact but there are more Panda's in Scotland than Conservative MP's

David Cameron's ill-advised attempt to try to interfere with the timetabling and the question for the Scottish referendum on independence may yet come back and bite him. It's all pretty simple really, Cameron seems to have (deliberately) missed the point, the bottom line is that Scotland’s future should be decided by the Scottish people (and the Scottish Government) Cameron's intervention is ill-advised and must surely add a few more votes to the growing pile of potential ‘Yes’ votes.

From where I am sat Cameron begins more and more to resemble the fictional public school bully Flashman every day. Certainly this ill-judged intervention seems to suggest that he has displayed about as much tact and judgement as the fictional Flashman. To be fair wrapping his government in the flag and stirring up a hornets nest over Scotland’s position in the UK with plenty of emotive language is classic distraction; which no doubt (hopefully) will distract peoples attention away from and the floundering Con Dem’s governments and the state of the economy.

Oddly enough I have no problem with Scotland resuming its place amongst the other nations of the world. I am sympathetic to Scottish ambitions, and hope that my own country begins to wake up and see the opportunities that independence can bring. The reality is what happens in Scotland is actually none of my business; it's simply a matter for the Scottish people. Cameron honestly does not seem to get it (or perhaps he does) his intervention while not unexpected is still rather surreal and hopefully pointless.

There are a few things that it's worth noting, one being that Cameron has less influence in Scotland than any Conservative leader in the last 150 years, he certainly presses all the wrong buttons with the Scottish electorate. Additionally after at least three re-launches (and re-branding exercises) the Conservatives in Scotland have gone nowhere. It's also worth noting that there are more live Pandas in Scotland than there are Conservative MP’s and a much better chance of more Pandas in future years.

TWO OUT OF THREE...

Something different is going on in Scotland, not quite under the radar, but nearly! Slowly, but surely, almost quietly and certainty with very little fanfare, the last few Scottish Governments have been been systematically reversing Dr Beeching's cuts to rural rail services. Over the last 30 years, some sixty two railway stations in Scotland have quietly reopened - this number is significantly more than anywhere else in the UK. In December 2009 the Airdrie to Bathgate Line which had been closed to regular passenger traffic since 1956 started to run again. This reopened service brought rail to an area which had lived without it for half a century. Rail re-openings have enjoyed a cross party consensus in Scotland. It helps to have both the powers, the political will and a plan - just imagine what we could do here in Wales with just two out of the three? perhaps we could wait for Carwyn...perhaps not!