Honesty and realism needed for Scottish Government’s transport targets – Alastair Dalton

Ministers must do better after failing to realise their cycling and A9 dualling ambitions

It’s time to call out the Scottish Government’s transport targets.

To be absolutely clear to SNP supporters, especially if they read no further, this is no criticism of ministers’ laudable ambitions to cut emissions and car use, and increase cycling, walking and public transport.

The problem is not what they are striving for, but the feasibility – and credibility – of the dates they have attached to these aims.

Ministers set a target in 2020 of cutting traffic by 20 per cent by 2030. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

Like the “vision” of cycling reaching 10 per cent of journeys by 2020, or completing dualling of the A9 between Perth and Inverness by 2025.

For years, I gave the latter target the benefit of the doubt, but perhaps should have been bolder sooner that it would not be realised – years before the Covid pandemic and the war in Ukraine were wheeled out as irrelevant excuses.

When a series of transport projects, such as new roads and rail lines, ran late and over budget under the previous Labour-Liberal Democrat administration at Holyrood, spending watchdogs criticised completion dates and price tags being announced for such schemes despite being far from certain.

There are parallels with putting over-ambitious timescales on key policies – like cutting traffic by 20 per cent by 2030, and scrapping ScotRail’s diesel trains by 2035.

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While the latter is highly likely to be postponed in a “refresh” of the plans later this year – and a year after the review was announced – the former looks in serious difficulty, with no concrete measures yet announced to achieve it since the target was set as long ago as December 2020.

My political colleague David Bol’s revelation on Saturday that net zero secretary Mairi McAllan faced having to take all petrol and diesel cars off the road to keep her 2030 climate target on track shows what ministers are up against. It followed the Scottish Government scrapping its pledge to cut 1990 levels of emissions by 75 per cent by 2030.

Colin Howden, director of sustainable transport campaigners Transform Scotland, told me: "The traffic reduction commitment has been around for over three years, and there’s still no plan in place, yet alone a reorientation of investment to match this.”

When we get it, let’s have honesty and realism please.