TWO YEARS after its formation, the Glasgow-Edinburgh Collaboration, led by Laura Gordon, continues to work tirelessly behind the scenes to promote links between Scotland's biggest cities. Although herself a model of patience and diplomacy, the uphill nature task of Gordon's task is well illustrated by the seemingly simple matter - touched on in these pages last week - of installing wi-fi on the Edinburgh-Glasgow train, a "no-brainer" in the eyes of almost every business person (or business organisation) who uses the service and cares about Scotland's competitiveness.

In case there was any doubt over its desirability, the collaboration spent £25,000 of taxpayers' money on a detailed survey by SQW Consultants of the benefits of on-train wi-fi, which concluded in October 2007 that for a smallish investment (perhaps around £1 million) in getting the service up and running, there would be major potential benefits to all concerned.

So what has happened to advance the day when Gla-Ed commuters can use their laptops? Er, virtually nothing.

Under the terms of their (controversially renewed) franchise agreement with the government agency Transport Scotland, train operator First ScotRail is not required to do anything other than wait to be ordered to undertake a survey (covering much of the same ground as SQW's), the results of which - First ScotRail's spokesman stresses - "do not mean there is a commitment to wi-fi or that it will be introduced".

Last year, First ScotRail's parent company increased its operating profits by 38% to £360m. Given its rhetorical commitment to customer service, keenness to work with industry partners etc, would the company not want to take the initiative in commissioning its own survey, making wi-fi happen and generating some goodwill?

Agenda put that question to First ScotRail's spokesman who declined to address it, instead repeating the mantra: "We continually look at ways to enhance customer service and work closely with rail industry partners to deliver value for money while performing at the highest standards." The above facts appear to belie this statement, however.

It might appear that First ScotRail has no intention of providing wi-fi on the Edinburgh-Glasgow line off its own bat, and is hanging out from a handout from "rail industry partners" at Transport Scotland at an unspecified time in the not-particularly near future.

The message to First ScotRail's high fare-paying customers in the meantime: let them use BlackBerrys (when they can get a signal.)

***

SO John Park, left, Labour's skills spokesman, is not standing for the deputy leadership, presumably because, as a parliamentary newcomer, fellow Labour MSPs felt that he had not yet served his time.

That may be true, but not fast-tracking an energetic 34-year-old politician with industrial experience and practical ideas on boosting productivity looks like a big mistake. A Park candidacy might have helped Scottish Labour's chronic failure to connect with business, whose representatives speak highly of his activism and energy. A former union official and head of employee relations at Babcock's, Park's work on the Apprenticeship Bill, to be debated in the autumn, is a rare example of a Labour MSP exposing weaknesses in SNP policy.

But no, Scottish Labour is to be offered an uninspiring choice of two former English teachers and an ex-councillor. At this rate, the Scottish party won't have many chances left to blow.