This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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Transport funding for West of Scotland
12/11/2003
The West of Scotland is to benefit from £6.7
million to improve public transport.
Transport Minister Nicol Stephen today awarded
the funding to WESTRANS and Strathclyde Passenger
Transport (SPT).
The Minister was speaking at the WESTRANS conference
inGlasgowon the proposed transport agency forScotlandand new regional transport partnerships of local
authorities. This is the first of a series of conferences
being held by the voluntary regional transport partnerships
over the next few weeks to discuss how best to deliver
services in their area.
Mr Stephen said:
"We must focus on improving public transport and
that is frequently best achieved by a co-ordinated
regional approach. Today I am awarding £6.7m to improve
public transport in the West of Scotland. I want the
regional bodies and local authorities to work together
to use this money to secure improvements, for example,
to the bus infrastructure, such as new buses, bus
stops, better bus information and measures to make
cycling and walking more attractive.
"We can help build strong communities and tackle
poverty by connecting people to each other through
better transport links. The key to this is joint
working between local authorities and transport
providers and that is why this funding will be
distributed to projects through the regional WESTRANS
partnership and SPT.
"One of the biggest challenges we face is the
need to make public transport more attractive, safer
and more sustainable in order to promote economic
growth and to connect our communities.
"Scotland's local authorities will play a vital role in
delivering better transport services. We have the
resources in place - with spending on transport rising
to £1 billion a year by 2006 - we must now agree the
best way forward to deliver the benefits this
investment will bring.
"By setting up an agency we can better integrate
the way services are delivered and improve the quality
of people's journeys. I want a framework that allows
people to deliver to the best of their ability and
regional conferences will help in agreeing how that
framework might look.
"Working together will be crucial to our
success. Local authorities, the regional
partnerships, transport authorities and the Executive will
all have an important role to play in bringing these
improvements forward."
The transport agency will help deliver significant
investments to secure improvements such as extending
concessionary fare schemes, supporting direct air routes
toScotlandand integrating improvements to roads and public
transport.
The regional conferences begin today inGlasgowand will be followed by events inAberdeenand Nairn on November 17, and inEdinburghon November 18. A national conference to be hosted by
the Executive will be held inGlasgowat the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre on
November 25.
Scotland's Transport: Proposals for a new approach to
transport inScotlandwas published in September and the consultation will
close onDecember 17, 2003.
The £6.7 million in funding comes from the
Integrated Transport Fund. The funding breakdown is:
£3.7 million to be deployed across the region under the
joint advice of WESTRANS and SPT; SPT will receive £3
million to continue the work of transport projects
which they began last year including dial-a-bus and bus
information services.
WESTRANS is a regional transport partnership
responsible for private andpublic transport as well as transport infrastructure
in the West of Scotland. It is a joint committee made up of
transport representatives from 13 local authorities in the
region. The Strathclyde Passenger Transport Authority is
responsible for public transport in the West of
Scotland.