TRANSPORT Minister Stewart Maxwell is to be asked to immediately approve Glasgow's £200million Crossrail project.

TRANSPORT Minister Stewart Maxwell is to be asked to immediately approve Glasgow's £200million Crossrail project.

Anniesland Labour MSP Bill Butler is raising a motion at Holyrood tomorrow, saying the city has waited 30 years for the project to connect Central and Queen Street stations - and action is needed now.

Dozens of politicians from all parties have backed Crossrail, which would allow commuters from Ayrshire and the south to travel to Glasgow and on to Edinburgh and beyond without having to change stations.

Mr Butler said: "The cross-party group feel it's time for a commitment to be made by the Scottish Government.

"Crossrail will bring benefits in terms of people being able to get to work from further afield, is essential in delivering the 2014 Commonwealth Games and will provide the missing piece in Scotland's rail jigsaw.

"It's not simply a Glasgow project but will have national benefits and we believe it's time for the Government to support this project.

"The benefit of this project to the Scottish economy is £1.06billion over 60 years."

In 2005, experts put the cost of Crossrail at £115m to £187m.

Glasgow list SNP MSP Sandra White said because of the increased cost of steel and construction, the figure was now likely to be around £200m.

But she added: "This is not a parochial rail line for Glasgow but a Scottish line which links Ayrshire to Perth, Dundee and Aberdeen.

"I don't think that's a lot of money to get a transport system working the way people want it to work in the 21st century."

SPT chairman Alistair Watson will suggest to Ministers the work could be carried out in three phases, lessening the impact on the public purse.

He said: "We are talking about a project which has been on the stocks for 30 years but it does not need to be delivered in one fell swoop. It could be delivered in three phases.

"We understand the Government doesn't have a bottomless pit of money each financial year and that's why our offer is to phase the project."