The opinion of Travel Scotland, as seen by Fife councillors, can be read in an excellent article by SNP Councillor, William G Walker, here;

http://www.citylocal.co.uk/cities/Fife/news/article/6800/

What is light rail?
Is it a tram or is it a "normal" railway for just commuter trains?

#2 light rail is trams.
Transport Scotland say there is ample capacity in rail to meet demands. They have obviously not read there own reports nor those of SESTRAN which say that there are only two more train paths available till 2026 during rush hours. The SESTRAN report says that additional capacity from all other measures like lengthing trains, improvement in scheduling etc will be taken up in the next few years. The reports say that the current service is running at over capacity during the rush hours. Is this the ample capacity TS talk about?
There are 40,000 commuter from Fife who currently use their cars, how are these people to get to work if there is no public transport. Light rail could carry up to 5000 passengers per hour where as heavy rail could carry up to 15,000 per hour.

Why the delay? The heavy vehicles that keep the Scottish economy going need access in both directions without the cost of going via Kincardine. Wasting time is not an option as the current bridge has a finite life. Adding extra miles will add congestion, public and business cost and pollution if go over Kincardine even on a temporary basis.

Trams were just wrong on every count for Edinburgh but got rushed through with no public consultation.

FRCS as above say start without delay, why the wait?

They are slowly getting there.
It would be plain stupidity to have it anything other than multi purpose and that must include power generation.
It does not say much for the road bridge if it is nearing the end of its life now ! we must have had better engineeers when the rail bridge was built.

This morning the new 68 mile long Channel Tunnel link between London and Kent is to be inaugurated. It cost 75 million pounds per miles! A total of over £5 billion!
Why all this penny pinching about the new Forth Crossing?

Stop the delaying tactics and get on with the bridge.....there is no point in a tunnel as it will compromise the defence contracts awarded to Rosyth......get a bl**dy move on !!!!!!

Another load of politically correct bunkum.

Get the thing built and make it road only. Who needs a "light railway"?

The Forth crossing is a vital link, and not just between Edinburgh and Fife, but between all places South and all places North!
Are the politicians still so lame & short-sighted, even with the absolute chaos that happens every weekend with bridge repairs (due to start again for 2 months this weekend), that they cannot sanction both a road AND rail option?
The extra £250m (taking the cost from £1.7 to £1.95 billion) is not such a huge amount extra considering the benefits it will bring.
I don't remember there being a problem spending an extra £250m when it came to their precious new talking shop!!
Hurry up and GET IT DONE !!!

All of this is in direct opposition to the governments green policies.

Why build a another bridge to aid more people to take their cars from Fife to Edinburgh and back?

Also why are we not looking at utilising rail freight and getting the menace of the 18 wheeler off the road?

We should be reducing the traffic on the roads by investing in business in Fife through job creation thus reducing the need to commute in the first place.

Looks like a done deal though as it always has been bridge in corridor C.

Just wait untils its windy (which never happens in Scotland) both brifges closed to high sided vehicles and the entire West of Edinburgh in traffic chaos.

Build a tunnel and provide diversity, use the heid, it may be more difficult and take longer but the overall benefit will counteract this.

I agree with it being multi use.

The crossing should carry water and sewage pipes.

Why encourage commuting by investing in it?

Close the bridge for a year and that might encourage some investment in Fife and encourage Fifers to get work in their locality?

I live in East lothian and for some reason work in the west of edinburgh, so I also wish that there were jobs near me, rather than on a business park in Embra but for now can't do much about it as East lothian is just full of commuters, farmers and golfers.

Infact - scrap the new bridge schemes and use the money to set up a few business parks, near common commuter dormitory towns and see what happens!??!

Brian, I wouldn't want to live in your world. It is great fun to be glib I suppose.

I assume Fifers should be glad we were allowed to ever cross the bridge and mix with normal people in the first place? Oh well, its back to our ghetto then...........

A multi use option is the most desirable solution but it must also have infrastructure at either end. The tram network in Edinburgh has been scaled back enormously, when do we think the light rail will extend out as far as the new crossing? 2050? 2100? never??

Remeber, multi modal does not mean it must be a tunnel. Cable stayed bridges can be multimodal as well, Oresund crossing for example carries heavy rail as well as road on a cable stayed main span of 1,000ft.

We should be thinking laterally and holistically about our transport solutions. Building what we have to and utilising to the best of our ability what we have. Keep the transport links together then we can have integrate transport hubs. Trains meet trams meet buses meet cars all in the one area.

Oh and don't forget about the ferry crossings to help reduce congestion. These things all play their part.

A cable stayed bridge is the right solution for here, now and the future. Multi modal if we can get the commitment to build out to it.

Where is this light rail going to go to, dunfermline no its got a train station, kirkcaldy no it too has a train station and so has every major town in Fife. Is it to go to Kinross 'cause that's a very long light rail line. I'd like to see some facts over this light rail to nowhere scheme or is it intended to stop just on the Fife side of the bridge at Inverkeithing?

Well if so just stop it at South Qferry and save yourselves a couple of million/billion pounds of our hard earned cash. If not then at least put some details behind it as it could dwarf the Edin tram scheme in costs and will therefore never happen!