R A I LT R AC K - The Railways Archive

Scotland
We are working with
partners on proposals
for a service to Glasgow
Airport, on the Edinburgh
CrossRail scheme, and on
doubling the frequency
and reducing the journey
time between Aberdeen
and Inverness
112
9.4 continued
Progressing developments where
there is only a social justification
The geographical nature and sparse population of Scotland
means that a limited number of developments have a purely
commercial payback.The level of interest in public transport
within Scotland has given rise to a long list of developments
for which there is significant political support.Railtrack is
keen to develop these schemes, but can only do so in
partnership.This can take the form of jointly funding
schemes,sharing the risks and benefits,or supporting local
government in seeking funding for a proposal.We are
working with partners on proposals for a service to Glasgow
Airport,on the Edinburgh CrossRail scheme, and on
doubling the frequency and reducing the journey time
between Aberdeen and Inverness.
Another project currently under consideration,within
the SPT area,is the upgrading of the Barrhead–Kilmarnock
Line to allow a half-hourly service frequency to operate.We
are also working with ScotRail and SPT to ensure the
successful introduction of 40 new, three-car trains for the
Strathclyde network by May 2000.
Improving the network
It is not always necessary to develop large schemes in order
to improve the performance, reduce maintenance times and
techniques or to improve capacity at a specific pinchpoint.
Wherever appropriate, improvements will be made when
the infrastructure is being altered as part of a renewal.On
other occasions,they will be carried out in their own right.
Some of these are highly visible , such as the installation of
CCTV to monitor stations,with associated upgraded lighting
and passenger help points.Others are less visible but give an
improvement to the reliability of the network,such as the
installation of heaters at more sets of points or the
introduction of remote condition monitoring to give real-
time information about the assets’performance.
A table of expenditure planned to achieve our vision is
shown on page 139 with more detail shown in each of the
Route Strategies.
The map opposite identifies some of the key
developments that are planned over the next ten years.