General Election: What the SNP says about travel

A series examining each political party’s position on key transport and travel issues

Electric dreams: The SNP wants to make flights between Glasgow and Islay (above) carbon neutral (Simon Calder)

“We want Scotland’s rail services to be significantly better and significantly greener into the bargain,” says the SNP in its manifesto. “We are committed to making the Highlands and Islands the world’s first net zero aviation region. Against the backdrop of Brexit, we are working collaboratively with Scotland’s tourism industry to future-proof the workforce.”

Key ideas

The essence of the transport policy is to “make our transport system greener”. This involves “investing over £500m in improved bus priority infrastructure to make bus travel the faster, greener option and encourage people out of their cars”. That sum represents over £92 per person for everyone living in Scotland.

An additional £17m would go towards loan funding for ultra-low emission vehicles.

Besides reducing the environmental impact of rail, the SNP “will insist our railways are run here in Scotland and that they can be run by the public sector”.

On aviation, the party says: “To reduce domestic flights, the Scottish government will work with the UK government to improve our rail journey times between Edinburgh and London.”

Heathrow airport expansion

The SNP was previously a powerful advocate of a third runway at Heathrow, with the carrot dangled by Britain’s biggest airport of restoring links to airports such as Prestwick and Dundee.

There is no mention of expansion in the manifesto, but presumably the party’s thinking is that if UK domestic flights are reduced then the need for a third runway dwindles.

High Speed 2 rail project

Only the Labour Party thinks that the new and controversial north-south rail link will reach Scotland. The SNP merely says it will demand the UK government commits “to improvements on the journey times between Scotland and London.”

Little persuasion is needed on the East Coast main line; the new Azuma trains will make that happen anyway from 2021, when the current 4h 20m journey time between Edinburgh and London will be cut by around 20 minutes.

If and when High Speed 2 is built, it should accelerate journeys between London and Glasgow.

Tourism

The SNP says far more about tourism than all the other parties put together.

The party wants to protect Scotland’s tourism industry from what it predicts will be the negative effects of Brexit. With one in nine workers in the industry from the European Union, the SNP warns that the “toxic Tory Immigration Bill” would be “catastrophic for Scotland”.

“Scotland’s tourism industry is of huge importance to our economy, contributing around £7bn to GDP and employing over 200,000 people.

“The SNP Scottish Government is working to ensure that Scotland retains its reputation as an open, warm and welcoming destination.

“The EU currently accounts for six out of Scotland’s 10 key visitor markets and around 44 per cent of our overseas visitors.

“Adding barriers to travelling freely will put recent industry success at risk.”

Independent analysis

Compared with the other parties’ manifestos, the SNP is remarkably explicit about some aspects of transport policy – but quiet on others.

The country depends on aviation more than any other part of the UK except Northern Ireland, and the vast majority of visitors from overseas arrive by air. The previous SNP policy to halve Air Passenger Duty to encourage more flights appears to have been dropped.

The plan to deploy electric aircraft on the Highlands and Islands services is bold, though not yet technically feasible.

The Scottish Nationalists’ concern about Brexit and tourism is in sharp contrast to the other parties; the Conservatives say nothing about British tourism and Labour says hardly anything.

Inside the UK industry there is deep concern about visitor numbers from the European Union after Britain leaves.

Last week the Lib Dems said they would “enable local authorities to bring in tourist levies to fund local tourism infrastructure”. The prospect of local tourism taxes is a controversial subject in Scotland currently, but the SNP says nothing on the subject.

The party’s manifesto, though, does hold out the prospect of pressing for lower VAT on tourism, UK-wide.