Speaking at a business dinner in Inverness, Iain McMillan, the Director of CBI Scotland, called for improved transport links to the Highlands. Addressing one hundred business leaders at the dinner, he argued that the Highlands of Scotland needed better transport links and connectivity; and he called on both the UK and Scottish governments to put more and faster investment into road, air and rail links.
“On road,” he explained, “the Scottish Government has indicated its intention to upgrade the A9 to dual carriageway. We support this investment as a means of unlocking the economic potential of 
the North, but the estimated completion date is 2025. That’s not good enough and the Scottish Government needs to be more ambitious and bring this project forward for earlier completion.”
Mr McMillan was also concerned about the fact that Inverness had lost its flights to London Heathrow some years ago because of limited runway capacity at the UK’s main hub-airport. “That was not acceptable then,” he stressed, “and, the absence of flights from Inverness to London Heathrow, isn’t acceptable now.”
He pointed out that other European cities such as Paris, Amsterdam and Frankfurt had more runway capacity at their key airports. They offered direct flights to some of the large cities in China that London was unable to serve. “Lack of runaway capacity in southern England, to provide world-class connectivity for the whole of the UK, must be addressed or we will increasingly be left behind in the economic stakes,” he added.
On rail, the director welcomed the planned improvements to the infrastructure to deliver an hourly train service in both directions between Inverness and Perth. “But,” he asked, “is a ten-minute reduction in journey times good enough? 
No, it isn’t. Again, the Scottish Government needs to be more ambitious and invest to make the journey times between Inverness and the central belt even better.”
CBI Scotland has welcomed the UK Government’s decision to give an additional £50m to the Scottish Government for improvements to the Scottish/Anglo Sleeper services. The money’s been awarded on condition that Holyrood also contributes matched funding of its own £50m. The business organisation believes that an improved Sleeper service is important to Scotland. It provides business consumers with greater choice in how they travel from various parts of Scotland, including Inverness and Fort William, to and from London. So, when the process of inviting tenders for the new Sleeper franchise starts, we would encourage the Scottish Government to be ambitious for a much-improved sleeper service going forward.
Mr McMillan concluded by saying that “the business of government is the business of hard choices. The improvements that I am calling for can be made if the political will is there to do so. The future of our country depends on the provision of world class transport links and connectivity. And CBI research shows that high quality infrastructure can make the difference when companies are looking at where to invest. So, let’s work together to make this a reality. And let’s get to it now.”