Following the Railways Act 2005, Scottish Ministers have a new power to produce a long-term Rail Strategy. This gives the Scottish Government an opportunity to ensure that the rail network and services in Scotland are the best they can be.
Scotland's Railways
In December 2006, Scotland's Railways was published, setting out Scottish Ministers vision for the rail network over the next 20 years. Scotland's Railways accompanies the National Transport Strategy, showing how rail can contribute to achieving the three strategic outcomes for transport of improving journey times and connections, reducing emissions and improving quality, accessibility and affordability. We recognise the key strengths of rail and will maximise these to develop the rail network where that is the best long term solution. Building on the work we are already doing, rail will:
- Offer world class train services which connect our city regions and major towns, providing journey times and quality of service that are competitive with car and air
- Provide access to inter-urban services through high quality interchange stations that link with feeder rail services from intermediate stations and offer easy transfer from car, bus, tram, subway, ferry, cycle and walking
- Make commuter train services attractive to passengers by ensuring that the journey to work is a high quality, reliable travel option and by ensuring that our rolling stock choices take account of environmental considerations, including air quality and noise emissions
- Support heavily loaded freight trains carrying an increasingly wide range of products with effective interchange to road and sea
- Achieve a rail industry that delivers efficiently and effectively to support our aims and vision.
Between October and December 2005, the Scottish Executive (now Scottish Governmment) consulted widely on what should be the strategic priorities for Scotland's railways for the next 10 to 15 years.
Towards a Transport Strategy for Scotland - consultation on rail priorities (October 2005)
In parallel, Network Rail produced a Route Utilisation Strategy (RUS) for Scotland, identifying options for making the best use of the current network.
Both Scotland's Railways and the RUS were informed by the Scottish Planning Assessment, commissioned to set out the evidence base, addressing -
- Where the demand will be for rail services over the next 10 to 20 years
- Where the current network will fall short of supplying this
- Proposals to meet the gap.
You can access the Scottish Planning Assessment Part 1 report and Part 2 full and summary reports below:
Part 1 Report Volume 1 - Chapters 1 to 3 and
Part 1 Report Volume 2 - Chapters 4 to 6
Part 2 full report
Part 2 summary report
These documents have been prepared for the Scottish Government/ Transport Scotland by Arup Consultants. They do not constitute or represent Scottish Government or Transport Scotland policy.
We also set up a steering group for coordinating all the forthcoming planning work and had some initial discussions with key stakeholders.
High Level Output Specification
On 13 July 2007 we published the first High Level Output Specification in Scotland. The specification is the next step in firming up medium-term requirements within Scotland’s Railways, setting out the detail of what Scottish Ministers want the rail industry to deliver between 2009 and 2014 on behalf of Scottish rail passengers and freight users.
The specification is a blueprint aimed at improving reliability, reducing journey times and increasing capacity to meet expected growth in rail passenger numbers between 2009 and 2014. It is provided to the Office of Regulation under the provisions of the Railways Act 2005, which transferred additional responsibilities for rail in Scotland to Scottish Ministers, to support the Office of Rail Regulation’s periodic review of Access Charges.
Who is responsible for rail strategy and investment?
Planning and delivering rail strategy and investment is the responsibility of Transport Scotland's Strategy & Investment Directorate.
We carry out appraisals of capital projects, advising on rail investment decisions, and we provide the specification of railway outputs that the Executive will wish to buy. We also provide input from a Scottish perspective on reserved rail issues such as -
- European directives
- The Disability Discrimination Act
- Safety and standards
Find out more about the
Strategy & Investment Directorate
