Starlink's TayPlan submission

The Starlink submission was as follows:

‘Rail is a more energy-efficient form of transport for moving large
numbers of people, such as is necessary when the main industries are
tourism and a university, as well as being faster than road transport.

St Andrews receives 1M visitors per annum, making it the most visited
town of its size in Britain. The University is one of only a handful in
Britain, and the only one in Scotland, without a direct rail service.
Reducing the dependence on cars will reduce greenhouse gas and other
harmful emissions as well as car journeys themselves, particularly to
Dundee and St Andrews. There are over 2000 commuting journeys into St
Andrews every day, many of them from the TayPlan area and it should be
noted that the effects of heavy traffic into the town can be felt as far
back as Cupar, 10 miles away.

Perhaps the main contributory factor to the outcomes is to economic
development within the TayPlan area, which would come with the improved
connectivity a railway would bring. In the TayPlan area beneficiaries
would be Dundee and Cupar, and also Wormit if the option for a new
station were included in the project. Improving the transport links from
St Andrews with these places and also Dunfermline and Edinburgh,
including the airport interchange, would improve employment
opportunities in the less affluent areas thus spreading the benefits
which accrue from wealth generation in St Andrews.

It should be noted that both First ScotRail and the University of St
Andrews are interested in the proposals, with the former describing the
Tata study as a credible basis for the Scottish Transport Appraisal
Guidance (STAG) procedure and the latter sharing student and staff
travel data.’