At a time when most countries are striving to expand and further integrate the urban rail transport of their major cities, Scotland is moving in the opposite direction.

To remove the user-friendly visibility of the multi-line SPT system, serving city and suburb and linking in with the subway, in order to return to a lone SPT circle line, is, effectively, to step back to 1896.
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In 2014, to the eyes of onlookers, Strathclyde's rail transport will be no less than an ecological dinosaur and a Commonwealth-wide laughing stock for Glasgow, and indeed for Scotland as a whole. Is that really the picture that Transport Scotland wishes to paint?

Can someone please explain this retrograde step to me?
Laurence Grove, Senior lecturer and head of French, Director, Centre for Emblem Studies, University of Glasgow.