R A I LT R AC K - The Railways Archive

9.2 9.3
9.2 The Parliament and local government
Railtrack looks forward to working with the Scottish
Parliament and Scottish Executive. Under the terms of the
devolution settlement,the Scottish Executive has substantially
wider powers for passenger and road transport than the
Scottish Office has traditionally held.This is particularly true
in the case of rail transport which has historically been
administered directly from the Department of Environment,
Transport and the Regions and its predecessors.
The Scottish Executive will shortly take over rail
support powers for ScotRail’s services,both those within
Scotland and on Anglo-Scottish routes.Railtrack,in common
with the rest of the rail industry, is working closely with the
new railway division within the Scottish Office to ensure that
appropriate accountability and interfaces are developed.This
includes clarifying the implications of transport safety and
regulation being retained as powers for Westminster and
Whitehall.
We are also keen to use the information obtained from
the Route Strategies that it has recently prepared to assist
transport-cor ridor planning with the Scottish Office .
The Scottish Transport White Paper Travel Choices for
Scotland(July 1998) gave details of the Government’s
framework to encourage integrated transport.As a new
institution,the Scottish Parliament has a unique opportunity
to bring forward quickly legislation for the hypothecation of
congestion-charging into public transport schemes.Such a
fund could greatly speed up the provision of new integrated
transport facilities on the Scottish network.
We look forward to clarification on the operation of
the Shadow Strategic Rail Authority within Scotland,
particularly within the context of devolved decision-making
on the allocation of the Scottish block grant.
We undertake liaison with all local authorities and we
participate in regional transport planning bodies such as
Highlands Rail Developments and the South East Scotland
Transport Partnership. We are proud of the links we have
now established and will use them to ensure that together
we can build a rail network that delivers the expectation of
the communities that we serve.
9.3 Sustaining the network
Introduction
The railway network in Scotland serves a population of five
million who occupy an area of 77,000 square kilometres,
one-third of the Great Britain landmass.The railway reaches
out to large areas of the community, including some of the
remotest locations in the countr y. In doing so, it traverses
some of the highest mountain passes,crosses some of the
widest estuaries,and passes over some of the wettest
moorland as well as having the largest and most
concentrated urban rail network outside London.It is,
therefore, a very diverse network that must use a range of
techniques to manage and sustain the infrastructure.
In order to meet the requirements and demands of the
Scottish community, and sustain the railway into the next
millennium, we will concentrate on the following issues.
• Day-to-day operation – delivering reliability and
punctuality
• Maintenance of the network
• Renewal of the network
• Developing the network.
Railtrack looks
forward to working
with the Scottish
Parliament and
Scottish Executive
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