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10 LEADER The Courier and Advertiser, Monday, December 10, 2007 HE OURIER T &C Advertiser KINGSWAY EAST, DUNDEE, DD4 8SL NO MEETING TTunnelunnel visionvision withwith OF MINDS UROPEAN Union leaders who hoped for a series Eof deals with African Union officials and heads of government have been sent home from a conference in Lisbon to think again. anan eeyyee onon futurfuturee Reaching back into a history of grievance and self- pity, AU commission president Alpha Oumar Konare CCORDING TO John Carson, John was made a senior member of Metropolitan Bonds it remains in accused the EU of persisting with a colonial approach there is only one option for a a team set up by the Labour Government control—although given to trade. That is unfair. A replacement Forth Crossing that Government to take Railtrack out of the state of the existing bridge, that’s The EU operates preferential trading pacts with is future proof, and that’s a tunnel. administration and turn it into the not- not always a good thing. former African colonies. Pressure for change is The man behind the Skye Bridge for-profit company Network Rail. “The SNP have picked up on this coming, in the first instance, not from European has set up a pressure group, Forthtag He went on to become director of bonds idea, and I believe that’s how countries but from the World Trade Organisation. (Forth Tunnel Action Group), which he maintenance for Network Rail before they plan to finance the new crossing.” claims influenced Transport Scotland going into semi-retirement. He now However the Forth crossing is It is the WTO that is urging the two sides to end into including tunnels in their public does part-time contracting and financed, John has strong views on special arrangements that favour African countries exhibition of options this summer. consultancy work. what format it should take. He is of the selling produce to Europe. It says that other trading “Without Forthtag,” John says, “All Despite his involvement in so many strong opinion that the Scottish nations should not be excluded. you’d have seen were bridge options.” PFI projects, John has his own Government must build a tunnel. John Carson of Forthtag. An impression was created in Lisbon that African John reckons a tunnel is the only reservations about the financial model, His reasoning is simple—he reckons countries were united in their rejection of a new affordable way of incorporating heavy which has been criticised for taking that by the time a new bridge opens it rail, and that is the Oresund Bridge that Forth SPA, which is a RAMSAR area regime for trade, but that is not accurate. It is more rail into a new crossing, which he sees costs “off the balance sheet” but will be as congested as the current links Denmark and Sweden. Yet it’s and contains two SSSIs (Site of Special a case of east versus west in Africa. as essential to stop it becoming as leaving future generations to pay for one. only 490 metres long. To cross the Scientific Interest).” congested as the current bridge. the project. “Currently, 37,500 cars cross the Forth the bridge would have to be In the summer of 2005, John set up Last month, five members of the East African “I don’t believe that PFI is always the more than 600 metres. Community—Kenya, Burundi, Uganda, Rwanda and Born in Ormiston, East Lothian, bridge from Fife into Edinburgh each the Forth Tunnel Action Group along John (58) left school at 16 to train as a way to go and I certainly don’t believe day, the bulk of them during the “According to Transport Scotland’s with Keith Giblett from South Tanzania—signed up to a deal in which they under- draughtsman, before getting an in PFI when it comes to the railways. morning rush period. The annual own reports, constructing a bridge that Queensferry Community Council, took to open their markets to EU goods over 25 years honours degree in civil engineering “Railways on the continent are all growth in traffic has been a steady could take heavy rail would cost twice architect Douglas Fleet and, providing specified local industries remain protected from Heriot Watt University. still nationalised, and many of them 2.5 to 3% since the current bridge as much as one for cars and trams Queensferry councillor George Grubb. by customs barriers: in other words, a compromise. He went to work for Ove Arup then have fares that are cheaper during opened. only.” The group are lobbying for a tunnel Aside from WTO strictures, the EU also wants a joined Miller Civil Engineering, where peak times. Scotrail increases fares “By the time a Geological problems, including a option, and John has had meetings deal to restrain Chinese influence on the continent. he led the team responsible for the during peak times. new bridge opens 120-metre trench cut by glacial ice with Transport Minister Stewart At present EU investment goes to African countries construction of the Skye Bridge. We need a change the number of melt, and mining for coal, oil shale and Stevenson and Finance Secretary John of thinking if we’re that claim not to be corrupt, but the Chinese have no “The project took six or seven years vehicles crossing on limestone, make boring a tunnel under Swinney. going to encourage to take from the cradle to the bridge each side of the the bed of the Forth problematic and As all Forthtag’s members are such scruples and this is giving them the edge as they more people out of you see today,” he says. “It was the bridge every day will costly. connected with South Queensferry, siphon off raw materials to fuel their economy. their cars.” first PFI project in Scotland.” be 50,000. John would like to see an immersed however, the accusation could be Needless to say, even the limited progress on this John thinks the John was also on the board of the “According to tube tunnel, which he says could be levelled that they don’t want yet front was not centre stage in Lisbon. That dubious railways were safer Skye Bridge Company Ltd, set up to Transport Scotland’s constructed in Rosyth then floated out another bridge, with its noise and honour revolved around the presence of Zimbabwean before privatisation. oversee the running of the bridge and reports, the existing and dropped into 12-metre deep intrusion, built on their doorstep. “In the old British President Robert Mugabe. He it was who asserted that the tolls. Tolls were scrapped in 2004 Forth Rail Bridge trenches in the bed of the Forth, before “That is an accusation that has been Rail days, they Africans had fought for human rights from oppressive when the then Scottish Executive, could be upgraded being buried to protect it from damage. levelled at me, but it’s not the case.” employed guys that rule while he presides over a country that is oppressed acting on a Lib Dem manifesto pledge, to add another 2000 “The tunnel would include three knew one or two John pulls out a map of the in just about every way you can think of. paid the company £27 million to buy seats by 2026. If the existing bridge is lanes in each direction for cars, a proposed route for the new bridge, miles of track like the back of their converted to carry trams, which is far Immigration was high on the agenda. This reflects back the bridge. corridor for pedestrian access and two which is further to the west than the hands. from certain as there have been no John, however, says there was a tubes for high-speed rail.” current road bridge. the pathetic convoys of ramshackle craft that are “They lived in the local village and pronouncements made on what the clause in the contract capping the But surely, even if heavy rail is paddled north from African countries by desperate they would walk their stretch of track future of the current bridge will be, then “The bridge will actually take traffic amount the company was allowed to included, Waverley and Haymarket families hoping to reach the promised land of EU every day. If there was something they could carry an additional 2500 per away from Queensferry,” he reckons. make from tolls. “Once the bridge was stations could not accommodate all “From my upstairs window I can just largesse. But Mr Mugabe himself perpetuates a wrong, it would be fixed immediately. day. these extra trains? paid for, that was it,” he says. “Had see the span of the current road bridge. variation of the same humanitarian disaster: it is from “When privatisation happened, the “So improvements in current rail and they waited another four or five years “No, they couldn’t. We are limited by The proposed new bridge would not his rule that tens of thousands flee by any means they first thing they did was shed staff. the addition of trams could carry an they would have been able to scrap the our Victorian infrastructure. But the even be visible from my house.” can to South Africa. tolls without paying out anything.” These old British Rail guys, who lived extra 4500 passengers. Yet, there will business centre of Edinburgh is moving and breathed their job and walked the be 12,500 more cars crossing. So why has he put so much of his Prior to this summit, Gordon Brown was ticked off After leaving Miller in 1995, John west, so we should be building with the track every day, were fired and Assuming each car has one passenger, time, effort and engineering expertise by the EU Commission President Barroso for worked on the Kinnegar Sewage aim of linking up with a new, purpose- replaced with regional guys.” that’s an extra 12,500 people at least.