News from last week about train line reopening after 40 years in Scotland. Reminded me of the  Burscough Curves which must be around their 40th anniversary of being closed. Like the Ormskirk bypass the local papers flip-flop between optimism and pessimism about the future of the project; and just at the moment there seems to be a feeling that neither will happen soon.

This week’s Champ reports that a transport minister said that the curves will only happen when a private company stumps up the cash, which sounds like a death-knell to me (or a continue-to-be-dead knell). A brief read through the Scottish Transport Agency’s site about the Stirling-Alloa-Kincardine railway suggests that it is public money that paid for the project.

It might be that John Pugh has the business plan tucked away somewhere to convince one of the rail companies to reopen the curves, but I doubt it. Unless this project is supported by central government, then it won’t happen. And ultimately that means all the local MP’s pushing for it.

At a time when there’s no end in sight of the petrol price rises, the key investment has to be in local public transport. Arguably, the investment should be put in when the economy is going well, but that’s a different subject. If it’s a straight choice between more trains and buses locally or, say, more roads, then surely we should be putting the money into public transport.