Introduction and Years Covered
This is the 2000 edition of "Scottish Transport Statistics", and is the nineteenth publication in the series. In most cases, this volume provides figures for the years up to 1999, or up to the 1998-99 financial year. However, in some cases, the latest statistics available at the time of going to press were for an earlier year. In cases where figures for two years have become available since the previous edition (number 18) was published in 1999, they are given for both years.
Where tables cover a run of years, the aim is that they should provide figures for eleven years (eg for each year from 1989 to 1999, inclusive) to enable the reader to see how the latest year’s figure compares with that of ten years earlier. However, this is not always possible.
The Structure of the Publication
First comes a Summary section, containing information about all modes of transport, which provides a compact view of the trends over the past 10 years, and some comparisons with the figures for Great Britain (or the UK) as a whole.
This is followed by 12 chapters, each on a specific topic, and each of which starts with the following sections:
1. Introduction;
2. Main Points;
3. Notes and Definitions;
4. Sources;
5. Further Information.
The "Main Points" aim to summarise the key statistics and bring out the more interesting and significant points. Readers are recommended to look at the "Notes and Definitions", when using the tables, as these provide insight and qualifications on the statistics. The "Sources" sections provide information about the sources of the statistics, and the "Further Information" sections indicate where further information about the statistics can be found.
After the twelfth chapter, there is a Historical Series section, which shows the trends since 1975 in some key statistics.
Main Changes in this Edition
Charts have been added to both the Summary section and the Historical Series section to illustrate some of the key transport statistics for Scotland and to compare them with the equivalents for Great Britain (or the UK). Some new charts and several new tables have been added in some of the chapters. A full list of all the new tables and charts in this edition appears on the page after the detailed list of statistical tables.
There have also been a number of changes to some of the existing tables, for example to provide additional details or because the breakdowns which were used before are no longer available. And, a few tables from the previous edition have been dropped, because the statistics that they contained are no longer available or can be replaced by better ones. Information about such changes is given at the start of the relevant chapters.