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how about a skytrain to the hospital?and we could have guards armed with laser guns to stop the neds taking over.

how about a skytrain to the hospital? we could have guards armed with laser guns to stop the neds taking over? or we could extend the subway.lets all hear it for the subway

Exactly hightower, As much likelyhood there as Councillor Watsons idea. How many ideas of rhetoric and spin must we suffer from the lips of Councillor Watson and other SPT loons. Action speaks louder than words, and those who buy, and read the E.T. that believe this latest statement are as brainwashed and deluded as the electorate are by politicians. Perhaps someone ought to be the bearer of bad news to Councillor Alistair Watson, [italic]"money doesn't grow on trees!"[/italic] and the kind of investment needed for upgrading the Subway alone is mounting. Basically there wouldn't be the same need or demand placed on the Southern General if the intentions of turning it and Glasgows Royal Infirmary into "Superhospitals" following the closure of the A & E Dept at the Western Infirmary, and the Victoria Infirmary. Everyone knows from recent incidents, that the Clyde tunnel can be closed off, with contraflows through just one causing widespread tailbacks north & south of the river. This plan to upgrade the Southern ("Suffering") General may be well intended, but it is as one Staff Nurse said to me recently so near to the sewage treatment plant on the Clyde that it is hardly an ideal site. Yet, other prime pieces of land are waiting to be developed, but are snatched up by large housing developers. And the site of The Queen Mothers is looking dubious. Getting back to the Fastlink, just how many people from the Glasgow Harbour development would leave their cars at home, and opt for this Fastlink service ? Has a study been carried out to see how viable it would be to waste so much money & energy, when many within Glasgow Harbour may just opt for using their cars in the end ? The Fastlink idea may just be hot water under the bridge & a road to no-where. Lets hope it isn't another pipe dream of Councillor Watsons either!

Perhaps Mr Watson should start with FirstBus? First services in Govan are woeful, especially in the evening.

Perhaps Mr Watson should start with FirstBus? First services in Govan are woeful, especially in the evening.

IF only - First bus for what? or to do what ? Lets see: First to put their fares up! First to pocket their profits! First to cut their services. First to hit the media with their so called improvement. But, not first to do as Stagecoach did with its bio-fuel initiative - using refined chip pan oil to run its fleet of buses. Why can First be first there ? ? ? Perhaps when Govan gets recognition as being just as important in terms of economic growth as other areas of the city with squillions being poured into them. Its a postcode lottery!

I have to admit that Councillor Watson is right on this occasion. Traffic will be awkward to be diplomatic about it. separatebus lanes wont help though. There is only a finite amount of land and road available around the area of the hospital, so any proposed bus lane is going to take away possible land that might be better suited for other uses. This is why i always go on about the need for a new subway. Something like that would give a direct route to the hospital. I am holding judgement on the bus lane idead util i see some schematics. I am thinking about the hellish crawl that is Paisley Road West here.

Superhospitals are a stupid concept. Glasgow is not a wealthy city. And those with the worse health are the poorest. So, someone living in Easterhouse will have to navigate their way to the Southern for a hospital appointment. Stupid concept, stupid idea. Stupid.

Stewie, My exact point, the person who came up with the term (I believe Tory. B. Liar?) has alot to answer for. The Superhospital concept is indeed stupid. When the Clyde Tunnel is closed, gridlocked with traffic at peak hours, or has a contraflow in one, due to the other being closed, bang goes the 8 minute response time for ambulance reponse times. Lives will ultimately be lost if this hospital scheme goes ahead - despite ambulances being stationed at Maitland Street, Cowcaddens, and Gartnavel Hospital, which is also being expanded. ( but not to include an A & E) Perhaps this whole city plan to close down A & E's accross Glasgow is going to end up far more detrimental to sick and dying patients than the Greater Glasgow And Clyde Health Board would like to admit. As you say Meep, I also think a new subway station close to or within The Southern General would be far more appropriate. I think Alistair Watson has to look far more in depth at this Fastlink project cannot be un-done once it is put into place. And must be the right thing for the people, not the Councillors, who will probably never even use it.

Ho hum. Another day another SPT big idea. A few points: FastLink is a busted flush – the government don’t want it and will not be keen to put investment its way. So, stubborn to the end, Cllr Watson is desperate to hang its hat on any other project which may be hijacked to help justify his big idea. The background to this is that Transport Scotland are compiling a list of transport projects of national importance, in order that they may give due emphasis to these from an investment point of view. There is little likelihood of Fastlink making the list but the SPT supremo doesn’t give up that easily. He does his case no favours by his melodramatics: [italic]“…there will be an almost unquantifiable increase in traffic volume.”[/italic] Absolute bunkum – obviously it can be quantified; it’s a matter of simple arithmetic. However if it is truly “[italic]almost unquantifiable[/italic] ” how then does he know that Fastlink will be the solution to the perceived problem. He does this every time and you have to ask when our most senior transport official will learn. You solve transport problems by first identifying the problem then finding a solution. You don’t invent a new bendy bus then go about looking for places to run it. Also, for a Labour politician he is unfortunately showing the sad signs of the national party malaise – forgetting which sectors of society he should be fighting for. It really is a bit rich to be demanding money from the NHS when he has been quite silent about his demands on the private developers at Glasgow Harbour - particularly Clydeport. How much are they putting in to your scheme Councillor? ANSWER – [bold]ZERO![/bold] The Councillor has his priorities badly wrong. He stays silent on Glasgow Harbour, lets it get under construction then has the public sector investing in the traffic problems which lack of proper planning created. Then, when we have a significant investment by the government he wants to charge them money to sort out problems which have yet to be identified and quantified. There is no evidence to suggest that a bendy bus running from Glasgow Central to Southern General will solve any traffic problems. The simple fact is that the basic homework has not been done. They should be asking the NHS to prepare a postcode map of all its admissions over the past five years. From that they should conduct some proper market research with patients, staff and visitors being asked about their travel patterns, not just where they travel from but also the time of day of their travel. A picture can then be created to see the areas of highest impact and from that proper transport solutions can then be devised. One thing is for sure – the M8 will feature in any proper study. In the corridor from Glasgow to Paisley we have major traffic generators such as Ibrox, Asda Govan, Southern General, Braehead, Renfrew (the biggest town in Scotland without any rail link), Paisley (Scotland’s fifth biggest city) and the airport. Perhaps you need to look at more than one problem at a time Councillor, and if you did you may be able to create a case of national importance. [bold]www.subway2020.com[/bold]

[quote][bold]cokecan[/bold] wrote: Perhaps Mr Watson should start with FirstBus? First services in Govan are woeful, especially in the evening.[/quote] ...So are all the other operators such as first stop. They dont even run at night!!

Glad to see we the wise ones can see through all the spin & rhetoric and know a ficticious story when we read one. The reason our councillors don't need to read fiction: Simple, they write enough of it themselves!

Well, does Cllr Watson honestly believe that the NHS is so incompetent that they’d plan for a massive new hospital without taking the transport impact into account? Or that his own colleagues in the council would be so stupid as to contravene all planning rules and give the NHS planning permission for such an ill-thought out application? And that the Government would be happy to commit to spending £840m taxpayers money on a project even if no one had thought about the transport implications? He must do or he wouldn’t now be crying wolf over traffic chaos that will “gridlock the whole of the south west of Glasgow”. Seems quite ridiculous to me, really…

What we need is a 24 hour a day subway covering the whole city with a flat fare of £1 and cheap weekly and monthly tickets.The bus companies and taxis would be forced out to the suburbs,and air quality would be much better.

i agree glasgow needs a transport system like trams, folk in glasgow deserve better the funding should be in place.

skytrain

skytrain

[quote][bold]Meep[/bold] wrote: I have to admit that Councillor Watson is right on this occasion. Traffic will be awkward to be diplomatic about it. separatebus lanes wont help though. There is only a finite amount of land and road available around the area of the hospital, so any proposed bus lane is going to take away possible land that might be better suited for other uses. This is why i always go on about the need for a new subway. Something like that would give a direct route to the hospital. I am holding judgement on the bus lane idead util i see some schematics. I am thinking about the hellish crawl that is Paisley Road West here.[/quote] If any road could use a bus lane- Paisley Road West is one. What happened to the days when we had 2 lanes and at rush hour they banned parking with an urban clearway. Now it's narrowed and congested. Hospitals will always have traffic around them. What is needed is proper bus services, but then bus services to hospitals might be busy at some times quiet others aka unprofitable. Get the buses run by contract, and we could see better services/

where is the logic in siting an 'expandable' industry in a limited space? on one side is a river on another side is a sewage plant the remaining sides are bounded by main roads accessing tunnel and motorways. I would bet that before reconstruction work commences that as medical technology grows there will be a further need for expansion to the site, How? the hospital should be resited in a more centralised and accessible location with roads having enough lanes to accomodate the traffic flow. one only has to look at Glasgow Airport it also is in the wrong place and yet the powers that be want to add another runway and expand I would think the adage, 'you can't squeeze a quart into a pint pot' still applies today regardless of imperial or metric measure

The day when Glasgow City Council get it right, and their plans, and intentions for the city see people benefit form their fruition, will be the day when h*ll freezes over, and the world comes to an end. Until our councillors start using Public Transport, buses, the subway, and trains - they will never fully understand, nor appreciate the damage that can be done from getting it wrong, or making the wrong decisions. Force councillors and MSP's to ditch their cars and see how they manage then! Only when they have to use public transport on a daily basis will they fully understand the problems, drawbacks and issues which are faced by commuters on a daily basis.