Born in 1946 and brought up in Cupar, Fife, I was educated at the local school - 
Dalreoch is the first of ten new strategic Park and Ride sites to be developed by Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT).
SPT was allowed to bring forward capital spend from the 2010/11 financial year as part of the acceleration of expenditure on major infrastructure projects announced by the Scottish Government. In April, plans worth £5 million were approved to develop sites across west central Scotland.
This money is to be spent in council areas outside the city of Glasgow to help reduce traffic on busy commuter routes. It was a condition of the grant that all projects should be completed by the end of the current financial year, and West Dunbartonshire is the first of our member councils to open a Park and Ride under these arrangements.
The new Dalreoch car park, which cost £120,000 to build, provides space for an additional 67 cars on the busy rail corridor between Dalreoch and Glasgow Queen Street, bringing the total number of spaces there to 87.
Councillor Alistair Watson, Chair of SPT, welcomed the completion of work saying: "Dalreoch is the first of the new generation strategic Park and Ride sites to be completed this year as part of a £5 million capital investment programme.
"We've clearly demonstrated our commitment to Park and Ride and our ability to deliver these projects alongside partner organisations. These facilities make commuting easier, promote increased use of public transport and offer more sustainable travel choices.
"Better transport connections open up more opportunities to access further education, employment and health care. I am confident it will prove to be a big boost to the local economy."
Dalreoch is the first of three new Park and Ride facilities to be built in the West Dunbartonshire Council area at a total cost of £670,000.
Detailed design is under way for a £250,000 rail Park and Ride at Dumbarton Central station and a bus Park and Ride facility costing £300,000 at Kilbowie in Clydebank - both funded by SPT.
West Dunbartonshire Councillor and SPT member William Hendrie said: "This is a major part of the delivery of our Local Transport Strategy, by encouraging use of the rail network and encouraging people to use their cars less. It will reduce the number of cars on the road in Dumbarton, congestion around the station, and traffic on the A82 to Glasgow.
"Dalreoch Park and Ride joins the nearby National Cycle Route 7 to offer more sustainable travel choices for journeys to work. Its position close to the Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park attracts many leisure cyclists and walkers. Picnic tables and benches will be added later in the year at the riverfront and will provide a valuable resting point on the national cycle route and the final phase will see the creation of a high quality biodiverse planting system.
"It has been a very successful partnership approach from public transportation agencies supported by excellent professional and contracting services from ID Consultants and JRB Construction."
The new car park is fitted with 12 CCTV cameras to monitor activity. Dalreoch station now has a total of 28 cameras and two help points to provide passenger reassurance that the site is secure.
This installation also marks the end of SPT's 13 year rolling programme of fitting CCTV systems at stations which began in 1996.
Dalreoch Station was one of the first stations to have CCTV installed as part of this programme. It has delivered CCTV systems to 147 stations across the Strathclyde rail network at a cost of £12 million.
