Bobby_F

Exactly. That's what the Labour politicians trying to sell the idea at public meetings with people against the idea when asked that question. If that is the best they can come up with I think this shows just how low the benefit is to the people who would suffer most as a result of it. Basically the idea is to get people to/from the airport as quickly as possible, yes? Therefore through Paisley without touching the sides. Benefit to Paisley/Renfrewshire would be zero. That I admit I didnt' know, and it does surprise me as BAA are not known to be ones to throw cash around. I did have a quick look to see if I could find anything on it, but all I saw was a quite from them on it being cancelled: "The airport operator BAA said it was "disappointed that Transport Scotland underestimated the costs of relocating infrastructure to the extent that the project can no longer proceed"." Doesn't sound like they're overly bothered? Maybe they realised they couldn't afford their part either? I wasn't suggesting that nothing had been done with that money, just highlighting the scale of the expenditure when £195m had been spent and the actual 'business end' had only had preparatory work done on it. What is also scary is when you look at that amount and then read this from Oct 2006: "The Transport Minister's recent statement places the out-turn cost - cost at point of completion - at between £170m and £210m. This is consistent with SPT's projections. " If we've already spent what the whole project was expected to have costed only 3 years ago, how can we be sure that the remaining £200 million would have been enough.

Serious question... what benefit would Paisley/Renfrewshire get out of this project? I'm glad it's been canned, but to make it party political the SNP should have cancelled it as soon as they had the chance. Sadly, they didn't. They went along with the previous administration's decision until they needed to make severe cuts (because of a crisis overseen by the national party of said administration). The fact that £195 MILLION pounds has already been spent shows you just how ludicrous the whole thing has been. It's an outrageous figure to have been spent before a single cm of track has been laid. Would you rather have spent another £200m trying to justify a wantonly spent £195m? If you ever go to Vegas, they'll roll out the red carpet for you.

I may have been slightly OTT on the distances for CDG (19miles) and Heathrow (17 miles), but I've flown in and out of those airports on numerous occasions, and have never taken a cab (or even thought about it) if I'm going to the centre of the city. They may only be twice as far from the centre as Glasgow Airport is, but in general the traffic makes even the worst Kingston Bridge tailbacks look like a Sunday afternoon in the 1930s. It might have been different if this rail link did as at CDG and linked you to the rest of the country. When I went to see Scotland's humiliation against Morocco in Saint Etienne at France 98 I got a TGV directly from CDG - perfect! But that wasn't the plan here - even with Crossrail. I live in Glasgow and use the airport regularly, but I would never dream of getting a train there, with or without there being a station at the airport. When this was being mooted I discussed it with various friends and colleagues and not one of them thought it was something that they would use. And as to people coming to Glasgow from abroad, why wait for a train to take you to a train station where you would in most cases need to get then get a taxi to your destination, when you could just get a taxi directly from the airport? It would be faster, a lot less hassle, and unless you were on your own, almost certainly cheaper too. I've no doubt that a rail extension would have given some benefits, but would it have justified the costs - no chance. For me, recession or not, binning this completely flawed project has to be good news.

I think this is fantastic news. Okay, so it'd have been better if it had never been started in the first place, but the whole idea of a Glasgow Airport rail link is bizarre in the extreme. We're not talking Heathrow, CDG, etc where the airport is 30-40 miles from the city it serves. The only reason this could ever have got off the ground was a combination of politicians' egos, and no doubt a few backhanders to certain parties. It really is an Emperor's new clothes idea. Spend £340m on a rail link that is totally unnecessary... or spend a tiny fraction of that laying on free buses from the airport to Gilmour Street or Paisley St Mirren stations. Problem sorted. As I say, I almost want to cry at the amount of money that we've already spent on this, but that sorrow is tempered by the fact the drain caused by the White Elephant Rail Link has stoppped at last. Best news I've heard all year!

Aesthetics aside, it looks like this is aimed at Saints fans... so why show Celtic on the attack !

Terrible news in one way... and of course the Jack Ross we had until a couple of months ago would be a huge loss to the team. But it's been clear to everyone that that Jack Ross has actually been missing for a while now. Maybe a fit Barron playing in his proper position will be better than an unfit Ross struggling with an injury?

Too late and too merry to add anything original to this topic, but what I posted on P&B this afternoon I still wholeheartedly stand by: I'd LOVE IT if he signed for Celtic tomorrow on a two year deal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Then broke his leg when it collided against the post as he scored a last minute own goal against Rangers next weekend. . . . After having time to reflect on this, and heard talk that it's really his agent that's to blame - I'm still going to stick with my first thought. Agents are employed by players. If Harte is happy for his employee to behave like a no-class scumbag, then guess what. It makes Harte a no-class scumbag. If he wanted a move to Celtic, why not have McKay phone them and say he's available? No. Far too honest. Let's go through a charade and cause heartache and hassle to a bunch of fans and employees of a diddy club to achieve the same end. So while I'd not lose any sleep if something horrible happened to McKay, bottom line is it's Harte himself who's responsible for this. Go on... break a leg!

I do think some of the posters on here need to come in to the 21st Century. A week in the jail may have been slow 20-30 years ago, nowadays they've Sky Sports, PlayStation, the internet, all the drugs you can eat....

I'd like to think we all HOPE it's going to be a great signing. I'm certainly not going to slate the guy till I've seen him play a few games.

I assume the 'transfer window' isn't an issue if he's out of contract?

On Monday it was worse than ever. The people I was at the game with actually gave up trying to talk about the match at half time as it'd have been easier to have a chat standing in front of the speakers at a Motorhead gig. On SMISA, well, I think Div's point is a fair one given how things have moved on of late. I'm sure all current SMISA members are happy with the work the organisation has done over the years and trust the guys that run it to make the right call on its future direction.