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SCOTTISH STRATEGIC RAIL STUDY
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 Steer Davies Gleave has been appointed by a client group 2, led by the Scottish Executive, to help prepare a rail investment strategy for Scotland, known as the Scottish Strategic Rail Study (SSRS). Our brief is to identify the costs and benefits of potential improvements to passenger3 rail services in Central and North East Scotland and to inform the development of the strategic priorities for the railways in this part of the Country. The client group's aim is to move from a position of predict and provide to a strategy that prioritises schemes according to their achievement of objectives and their relative costs and benefits. The Executive's consultation paper sets out the factors that will need to be taken into consideration:
- Ensuring that rail projects compete effectively for resources with other claims on transport spending;
- Taking a network perspective -both ensuring that projects do not compromise the effectiveness of the broader network but also favouring schemes that will generate wider network benefits;
- Demonstrating 'fit' with the wider policy context.
Study Area
1.2 The area for study (Figure 1.1 below) stretches from Inverurie & Aberdeen in the North East, southwards through Dundee and Perth in the Tay Estuary and includes all of the Central Belt -the Edinburgh, Glasgow, Stirling and Falkirk hinterland. The southern boundary stretches from Ayr on the west coast to Dunbar on the east. The study does not include the Highland Main Line to Inverness, or services covered by the Highland Rail Partnership, but it necessarily has to take account of the implications of services that cross these boundaries, particularly the implications of those that originate from outside the area. In this context, decisions on both the East Coast Main Line (ECML) and West Coast Main Line (WCML), as well as longer distance services from the north, (from Inverness to the Central Belt and from Inverness to Aberdeen for example), will have implications for the study area network.
1.3 Within the study area, local authority groupings of SESTRAN and NESTRANS, plus Strathclyde Passenger Transport (SPT) and the authorities around the Tay Estuary form an area that is broadly, (although not exactly), contiguous with the study boundaries. Figure 1.1 illustrates the area and the rail network contained within it. There is considerable diversity in the characteristics of the use of this network from long distance to very local services, but clearly a major factor is the substantial urban network around Glasgow - which, with over 40 million passengers per year and 180 stations is the largest commuter network in Great Britain outside of London.
FIGURE 1.1 Study Area and Regional Groupings
1.4 This diversity has led us to develop an approach which considers the strategic options for the railways at a sub-regional level, but under the umbrella of a set of overarching objectives for the national rail network. By focusing at the sub-regional level we are able to reflect not only the different states of development of the network throughout the study area, but also recognition that each area has different needs and priorities for their part of the network. The interactions between the areas are brought together in our analysis when we consider the Inter Regional links between them.
Parallel Studies
1.5 The study has been carried out in parallel with a number of other major studies. The most significant are the Central Scotland Transport Corridor Study and the Rail Links to Edinburgh and Glasgow Airports Study, both for the Scottish Executive; the Central Scotland Rail Capacity Study for the Strategic Rail Authority (SRA) and the Waverley Station upgrade study by the SRA/Railtrack. To ensure consistency, the SSRS steering group includes representatives from the steering groups of the other four studies, and wherever possible the same planning data has been used.
1.6 There are a number of other on-going or recently completed studies - such as those for the Caledonian Express (Shotts Line), the Tay Estuary Rail Strategy (TERS), and the Borders (Galashiels) route - which are being prepared by promoters of these schemes. This report is more strategic than these more detailed scheme-specific studies. The appraisals presented later in this report are necessarily more broad-brush and are not meant to replace or supersede the promoters' own analysis. However, by taking a network wide view this study is able to assess the interactions of the various projects under consideration throughout the study area.
Report Structure
1.7 Following this introduction the remainder of this report is organised as follows. Chapter Two describes the current network, its usage, and key capacity constraints. Chapter Three presents a view of what will happen if nothing is done to improve the network, based on our forecasts of the underlying growth in the demand for rail travel, and the consequences of this growth in terms of overcrowding. This is the 'without strategy' scenario, or as it tends to be described in appraisals, the 'do-minimum' scenario.
1.8 In Chapter Four we describe our approach to developing a strategy, and in ChaptersFive,Six,SevenandEight we describe the results of testing strategy options for each of the SESTRAN, SPT, Tay and NESTRANS areas to identify the strategic priorities in each area.
1.9 Chapter Nine then turns to look at Inter-Regional links and the services that
1.10 Chapter Ten summarises our findings.
Eight Working Papers support this report and provide much of the detail:
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