SCOTTISH RAIL STRATEGY STEERING GROUP
TRANSPORT SCOTLAND
BUCHANAN HOUSE
1st June 2006
Present
Malcolm Reed Transport Scotland
Frances Duffy TS
Janet Egdell TS
Claire Keggie TS
Denise Manzor TS
Ron McAulay Network Rail
Nigel Wunsch NR
Richard Eccles NR
Paul Hadley Office of Rail Regulation
Gerard O’Hanlon First ScotRail
Apologies
Peter Fuller TS
Agenda Items
1. Introductions
Janet
Egdell welcomed Claire Keggie who has newly joined Transport Scotland
to the group. Claire will be taking forward work on the Rail Strategy.
2. Minutes of last meeting
Minutes of 10 April 2006 were approved without amendment.
3. Action Points
AP
9 from 16th February - Future Stakeholder Forum is still outstanding.
This will be arranged when clear dates for publication of the SPA,
consultation RUS etc have been agreed.
Action Point: Ongoing.
4. Timeline
The
overarching National Transport Strategy (NTS) has now been issued for
consultation and, subject to Cabinet agreement, is likely to be
published around October/ November.
The Rail Strategy is also likely
to require Cabinet agreement. Timings for publication are still under
discussion but September is a possibility for issue of a draft.
The RUS timings have changed. Formal consultation is likely to begin in August with publication of the final RUS in February.
5. Scottish Planning Assessment
A revised version of the SPA has been received. This will be issued to the group for comment.
Action Point: Denise Manzor to issue the latest version of the SPA for comment.
6. Route Utilisation Strategy
Nigel
Wunsch told the group that following the last meeting of the RUS
Stakeholder Management Group, a timetable workshop was held. This
focussed mainly on two main areas routes to Aberdeen and SW Glasgow.
Actions from this are currently being worked through and this is
proving more time consuming than anticipated. It will however be
beneficial to have timetable options included in the consultation RUS
along with the implications of these. Consequently it will take longer
to produce the draft.
Malcolm Reed expressed concerns that
timetable options may assume station closures. Nigel assured him that
the RUS itself will not recommend the closure of stations however it
may raise the question of the long term future of some stations. The
time to review stations is when they will need a substantial amount of
money spent on them.
7. Feedback and next steps from Rail Strategy Workshop
Janet
Egdell told the meeting that an SE/TS Rail Strategy workshop was
recently held and a possible framework for the Strategy was discussed.
The attendees were generally content with the direction however several
suggestion were made which will be taken on board.
8. Draft Rail Strategy
An
early draft of what the Rail Strategy may look like was issued to the
Steering Group prior to the meeting and Janet asked for comment on this.
Several
comments and suggestions were made which were noted. The draft will be
reissued to the Steering Group for further comment along with the draft
summary of the SPA and a summary of the consultation analysis.
Action Point: Denise Manzor to reissue the Draft Rail Strategy along with summary SPA and summary Consultation Analysis.
9 AOB
Network Rail Strategic Business Plan
This
will be published by the end of June. It was suggested that it may
helpful to share the content with TS prior to publication. Nigel
Wunsch will contact Janet to set up a meeting for this mid June.
Action Point: Nigel Wunsch to set up a meeting with Janet Egdell mid-month.
East Coast/West Coast Main Line RUS
Malcolm
Reed expressed concerns about the potential impacts on Scotland. TS
are already represented on the ECML RUS Management Group. There is a
West Coast Working Group and Richard Eccles will extend an invitation
to TS.
Action Point: Richard Eccles to invite TS to the West Coast Working Group
10. Date of next meeting
The next two meetings will be at 11am on 3rd August and 28th September, Transport Scotland offices, Buchanan House.
