Our £3.6bn blueprint for Scotland's railways

(from Rail News "Guest Opinion")

As a minister who has used the train over 600 times since coming into Government, I have a real passion and enthusiasm for rail. Commuting to and from work on the train each day has given me a chance to experience the rail network at first-hand and those experiences have given me a clear vision about what I, and this Government, want to achieve in Scotland.

And we are seeing some real movement in the industry north of the border.

Having set some of the most ambitious targets for reducing carbon emissions in the world, we've placed a strong focus on investing directly in transport initiatives which address the threats posed by climate change.

To achieve this, we are building new rail lines - re-opening many stations closed during the Beeching cuts. We are more than half-way through our current rail infrastructure enhancement programme and already well on our way to delivering £3 billion worth of investment on infrastructure projects by 2012.

Achievements to date include the recently completed Edinburgh Waverley upgrade - our doorway to Scotland for many visitors from across the UK - and, of course, the Stirling-Alloa-Kincardine route where passenger numbers in the first year were treble original forecasts.

Further commitments will deliver a fleet of Class 380 electric trains, which will add more than 9,000 passenger seats to the Scottish rail network from September 2010.These 38 new trains have 23-metre coaches, as opposed to 20 metre, bringing an improved passenger environment.

To house these, we are expanding Shields Road train depot in Glasgow through a £24 million refurbishment, turning it into a purpose-built maintenance and overhaul facility.

But not all projects cost tens of £millions; smaller investments are making a real difference, too.

Our £3.5 million renovation of Laurencekirk station in Aberdeenshire has allowed the return of passenger trains for the first time in over 40 years. The station, which was left derelict following the Beeching cuts, re-opened in May 2009 and is already providing the local community with access to education and employment opportunities.

The Airdrie-Bathgate route is on course for opening in December 2010, and will be electrified throughout from the start; work has started to enhance the capacity of the important Paisley corridor, and we have recently announced our plans for taking forward the re-opening of the Borders railway.

We also made a firm commitment for the electrification of the main Edinburgh - Glasgow line and associated routes, including a new west Edinburgh station to link with the city's airport.

This is an ambitious, exciting programme of works that aims to reduce journey times between these two important cities by around 15 minutes. It is estimated that every minute we save in journey times has the potential to generate £60 million for the Scottish economy.

The Scottish High Level Output Specification (HLOS) sets out our £3.6 billion blueprint for railways in Scotland from 2009 to 2014: it focuses on reducing journey times, increasing capacity and meeting rising passenger and freight demand. Our planning assumption is for 23 per cent passenger growth by 2014 and our strategy for meeting this includes rolling stock improvements and incremental enhancements such as capacity improvements on the Highland main line and the Glasgow to Kilmarnock via Barrhead route.

We also expect to address emerging capacity issues at Glasgow's two main terminal stations over the next decade.

Rail plays a vital role across the country, but particularly so in the west of Scotland which has the largest suburban rail network outside London. It is therefore vital we work now with the rest of the industry to cater for a growing passenger market.

We have always recognised the potential of electrification in our strategy, partly because key routes - most of the Glasgow network and both of the main cross-border lines - are already wired, creating major opportunities for optimising use of fleet. We are confident that the electrification of the Edinburgh-Glasgow route will be just a starting point, and that it will provide the basis for a rolling programme for wider electrification of the Scottish network over the coming decade.

Our ultimate aim is for the majority of rail passenger journeys in Scotland to be made in electric rolling stock.

Looking to the future, we recently announced the outcome of the Strategic Transport Projects Review. This future programme of nationally significant measures and initiatives supports the Government's aim of achieving sustainable economic growth. The STPR identifies transport interventions that best contribute to achieving this from the current programme and beyond, with rail featuring heavily in our vision. The majority of interventions are based on rail improvements, ticketing, safety and modal shift. Seventeen of the 29 packages are public-transport based.

Taken together, our high-level modelling suggests that the overall package of schemes could cut between 100,000 and 150,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent per year against business as usual.

We firmly believe that high-speed rail links between Scotland and England present fantastic economic and environmental opportunities for Scotland. That is why we support the development of a Scottish team to bring forward the case for extending high-speed rail links between Scotland and England.

There is much work to be done to keep Scotland moving. This is an exciting time for Scottish transport and it is a privilege to be part of the team helping meet the challenge of delivering a world class transport network for Scotland.