A FORMER Labour rail minister has backed the scrapping of the latest proposal for a Glasgow Airport Rail link as a “poor use of public money”.

Tom Harris said a much-mooted £144million tram-train service from Central Station to Abbotsinch would not be “viable” without long-dropped plans for a Crossrail connecting railway systems north and south of the Clyde.

The former Glasgow South MP was speaking after an expert report was revealed suggesting that the link would do more economic harm than good.

Consultants Jacobs, in a scathing report, found the current business plan for the link would slow down existing services and take space at Central Station needed for far busier trains.

The experts also said the multi-million-pound scheme would struggle to win passengers as it would be slower and less convenient than the bus for many people.

Labour and the SNP have been at loggerheads over the rail link since 2009 when the Scottish Government axed a more expensive heavy rail version of the scheme.

Mr Harris, now a consultant with Cogitamus called for peace on the issue.

He said: “We have to draw a line under the partisan rivalries of the last 10 years.

“Now there is an opportunity for us to do that. “Too often transport infrastructure is built where politicians want it rather than where real people want to go.

“The worst thing you can do is spend public money – which is hard to come by – on something that is not going to live up to its numbers.

“I have long been concerned that this link would not be value for money. Without Crossrail I don’t think it would be a viable proposition.”

Mr Harris, however, backed growing calls for an exploration of a tram line that would link Glasgow to new developments, including the superhospital and Braehead, as well as Renfrew and the airport.

In a report prepared for the Scottish Government quango Transport Scotland, Jacobs suggest trains full of hundreds of commuters from Ayrshire and Inverclyde be would slowed by two and a half minutes to make away for trams carrying far fewer airport passengers.

That modest sounding delay, they added, was would cost the economy £4m a year alone.

Cuttingly, Jacobs experts note that the economic disadvantages of a slower, less reliable service from key commuter areas had not been examined by the council officials who came up with the current business case.

Glasgow city leader Susan Aitken of the SNP has signalled she still wants a surface link but wants to make one that works. She said: “The findings of this study provide the foundations for Glasgow and partner authorities to better deliver the long term aspiration for improved connectivity to Glasgow Airport not put an end to it.”