By Eric Nicolson

THE CAMPAIGN to re-open Blackford railway station has received a “good hearing” from the Scottish Parliament’s Petitions Committee.

Perth MSP Roseanna Cunningham spoke in support of the bid by COBRA—the Campaign to Open Blackford Railway station Again—at Tuesday’s meeting of the committee.

She and other campaigners have been heartened by the reception they received.

Ms Cunningham said yesterday, “The Petitions Committee at an earlier meeting had already asked for responses from the Scottish Government, TACTRANS and Network Rail, all of which were available before Tuesday’s meeting.

“Indeed, COBRA had prepared a very powerful response of its own to the comments made by each of the three bodies mentioned.

“I urged the committee to keep the petition open because there were a number of outstanding issues raised by COBRA which had not been addressed adequately so far.

“In particular, Network Rail’s assertion that there was no suitable train service which could stop at a re-opened Blackford railway station is simply untrue, because considerable discussion had already taken place around the idea of starting the Dunblane trains from Blackford.

“Indeed, I had to declare an interest as one of those to benefit from any re-opened Blackford railway station because I would be precisely the kind of person who would switch from using Dunblane.”

In the Scottish Parliament with Ms Cunningham observing proceedings were Strathallan representative and Blackford resident, Councillor John Law, and Richard Beith, a COBRA committee member.

Mr Beith said, “COBRA are very grateful for the strong support we have received from Roseanna in our campaign.

“Our case received a good hearing by the committee and I think it is a reflection of the strength of our case that they have decided to continue consideration of the issues we have raised.”

Mr Law added, “Members of the Petitions Committee seemed very receptive to the subject matter of the petition and there was unanimous agreement that it would be kept open, that they would write to ScotRail, and that they would pursue the other organisations with the points raised by COBRA and Roseanna Cunningham MSP.

“The re-opening of Blackford station would be of real and immediate benefit to the people, economy and environment of Blackford and the whole of the surrounding area.”