The final item of business today is a members’ business debate on motion S4M-09382, in the name of Alex Rowley, on Halbeath park and ride. I have had instructions on how to pronounce “Halbeath” correctly.
Motion debated,
That the Parliament welcomes the opening of the Halbeath Park and Ride scheme, which provides 1,000 free car parking spaces, including 48 disabled bays and 12 electric car charging bays, to residents of Cowdenbeath, Dunfermline and the surrounding towns and villages; understands that the scheme is already proving extremely popular with commuters and is a welcome transport link connecting Fife to the rest of Scotland, and considers that a rail link and railway station at the site would further the economic and transport potential of the scheme.
17:41
I acknowledge that Halbeath park-and-choose facility, which we are here to discuss, was established with investment of £7 million from the Scottish Government and £2.5 million from Europe. That was very much welcomed when the investment was made, and when the Minister for Transport and Veterans joined Councillor Pat Callaghan for the opening of the facility.
In speaking to the motion tonight, I am asking that the Scottish Government make further funding available to create a rail halt at the Halbeath park and choose, which is situated in my constituency, at Crossgates, and which is accessible to people throughout Fife and much further afield. A rail halt at Halbeath would take some of the pressure off the rail halt and car parks at Inverkeithing station, and it would greatly improve the choice at Halbeath. Halbeath is strategically located, close to the M90, A90 and A92. It sits alongside the Fife circle railway and is well positioned to become one of Scotland’s key multimodal transport interchanges.
The strategic transport projects review of 2009 identified both a park-and-ride bus site and a park-and-ride rail halt, with rail improvements between Inverkeithing and Halbeath. The first step towards achieving that objective would be to put the rail halt in. It could be linked to the Fife circle route, thereby giving people access to the railway as currently operated. Adding a rail halt and providing a visible and accessible park-and-choose facility would increase people’s choice and would achieve the aim of making public transport more competitive with the car.
Currently, 23 million vehicles cross the Forth road bridge every year. Approximately 3,500 vehicles per hour flow into Edinburgh and the Lothians. At peak times, trains running southbound number eight per hour, with an average of 400 passengers per train. That is 3,200 passengers an hour. More than 10,000 passengers come out of Fife by train every morning into Edinburgh and the Lothians. There are more than 100 train services in each direction every day. I believe that it therefore makes sense to build a rail halt at Halbeath. Of the traffic that flows on to the road bridge, 20 per cent of it comes down the M90 from Perth and Kinross, past Halbeath park and choose, and on to the bridge; 25 per cent of the traffic comes along the A92 from the Kirkcaldy and Glenrothes area, past the park and choose, and on to the bridge; and 29 per cent comes from Dunfermline, next to the park and choose, and goes on to the bridge.
In the medium term, it makes even more sense to make the investment that would result in the construction of a direct dual-track rail link between Inverkeithing and the Halbeath park and choose. Such investment would reduce train journey times between Edinburgh and Perth, and Aberdeen and Inverness, and would reduce times for Fife services. It would also improve access to the port of Rosyth, which would be an economic boost to the port. The Halbeath park and choose would then be at full capacity, which is currently 1,000 car parking places. We would have the good problem of having to look for more car-parking places.
The park and choose is not just about cars. Buses run to it from communities across Fife, so the investment that I am calling for would mean that we would have a properly integrated public transport system.
Step 1 is the rail halt, and step 2 is the new direct rail link between Inverkeithing and Halbeath. Such a development would improve journey times and connections. It would tackle congestion and the lack of integration and connections in transport, which have an impact on the potential for continued economic growth in Fife and in the east of Scotland.
The development would reduce emissions, which would tackle problems of climate change, air quality and health improvement. It would be accessible and affordable and it would give people a choice of public transport. Availability would mean better-quality transport services, value for money and an alternative to the car.
I am totally committed to better transport links between Edinburgh and Glasgow, because I recognise that they are the two cities that are the key drivers of the Scottish economy. Crucial to that strategy is the city region agenda and the city region link, and crucial to that in the east of Scotland is investment in the Fife infrastructure, including the railways.
The creation of a new rail link between Inverkeithing and Halbeath is crucial to connectivity. I call for the rail halt and the station to be put in place at the park and choose as a first step. I am grateful to the members who have stayed for the debate and I hope that we can make progress in the interests of the east of Scotland economy.
17:47
I congratulate Alex Rowley on securing the debate. As the Presiding Officer knows, I am afraid that I will be unable to stay for the entire debate or to hear the minister’s response. I apologise to you, Presiding Officer, to the minister and to Alex Rowley. However, I look forward to reading the debate in the Official Report tomorrow.
It is clear that the Halbeath park-and-ride scheme, which was—as we heard—funded principally by the Scottish Government, has been a great success, notwithstanding that it opened only in late November last year. The offer of 1,000 free car parking spaces, including 48 disabled bays and 12 electric-car charging bays, is hugely attractive to the residents of Cowdenbeath, Dunfermline and the surrounding area. That is why Fife residents are enthusiastically using this excellent facility. It is also worth mentioning that the hub building has facilities that are important for the convenience of travellers who use the park and ride.
As we look to the future, it is to be noted that the strategic transport projects review’s recommendations include a railway line between Inverkeithing and Halbeath in the form of a new double-track rail link. I understand that although that development would not significantly reduce passenger journey times, the greater benefit would be to freight transport at Rosyth port. That would be welcome; I note that Alex Rowley welcomed that potential.
The strategic transport projects review covers a 20-year period to 2032, so it is clear that the timing of any such development will depend on resources becoming available. It is worth pointing out that we in the Parliament do not at this time control all our resources; rather, we operate by way of a fixed budget that Westminster metes out. Instead of controlling 100 per cent of our tax base, we control the miserly amount of 7 per cent.
In addition to that, we have had since 2010-11 a cut of more than 25 per cent in our capital budget. I submit that any calls for major capital expenditure must be considered in that constrained budgetary context. I add that people like me who advocate a yes vote do not consider those constraints acceptable in what could be the 14th-richest country in the world.
The SNP Government has made considerable investment in our transport network, notwithstanding the constraints that are currently being applied. A key example of that for residents of Fife is the new Forth replacement crossing. An important part of the related developments are the bus lanes that are already included in the M9 and M90 links to facilitate shorter travel times between Halbeath and Edinburgh.
I recently wrote to the south east of Scotland transport partnership about the rail halt at Halbeath because, on the face of it, the STPR recommendations do not provide for it. SEStran’s reply to me, which is dated 9 April 2014, states:
“In answer to your specific question, I can advise that the scheme does not feature in the SEStran and Fife Council projects in our bid for the Scottish Stations Fund.”
I was a bit surprised by that, because there is a £30 million Scottish stations fund and it is not clear to me why it has not yet been considered a priority to commence the preparatory work that would need to be carried out prior to making an application to the fund. I hope that SEStran and Fife Council change their minds and prioritise the proposal for a halt at Halbeath, and ensure that the preparatory work is commenced with a view to making an application to the Scottish stations fund. I suggest that, while they are at it, they also address the lack of reasonable disabled access to Cowdenbeath train station and see what can be done to tackle that long-standing problem.
17:51
I congratulate Alex Rowley on securing this debate on the Halbeath park and ride. Although the park and ride is in his Cowdenbeath constituency, Halbeath village is in my constituency and the facility is accessed by a large number of my constituents across Dunfermline and west Fife.
Halbeath is rapidly growing and changing. Hundreds of new houses are being built right next to Halbeath village and many more are in the pipeline for the nearby Shepherd Offshore site and the wider Duloch area—I recently met representatives of the NHBC, who told me that there are more house completions in that area than in any other part of Scotland. Although that is good news for my constituency, the current infrastructure, including schools and transport links, has struggled to keep pace with the change.
One of the biggest issues that constituents are raising with me is difficulty in parking at train stations. Most car parks in the area are full by 8 o’clock in the morning, making it difficult for people to access train services into Edinburgh and beyond. Many commuters from across Fife and Perthshire park at Inverkeithing train station, which is struggling to cope with the demand. For many of my constituents, there is no option but to face the traffic and drive across the Forth bridge.
As Alex Rowley said, 23 million vehicles cross the Forth road bridge every year, which is around 30,000 a day from Monday to Friday every week. Transport Scotland has found that 29 per cent of all journeys that are made across the Forth bridge start at Dunfermline, with the majority being made by people who are commuting into the Edinburgh area for work. That flow will only increase as Dunfermline’s population continues to expand, with people taking advantage not only of Dunfermline being a fantastic place to live but of house prices there being substantially lower than in the Edinburgh area.
At Halbeath park and ride, there are 1,000 car parking spaces. It is already a popular transport hub that caters for those who want to park and ride, and for those who want to car share. It could be much more. Halbeath’s location, just off the M90/A90/A92 corridor and the Fife railway circle, means that it is ideally placed—as Alex Rowley said—to be one of Scotland’s key multimodal transport interchanges. A train station and rail halt at Halbeath would be a huge boost for my constituents in Dunfermline, for Fife and for Scotland. It would be a real boost for our local economy, local jobs and local businesses, and it would provide much-needed infrastructure to support the ever-growing eastern expansion in my constituency as well as the new expansion that is planned for the north of Dunfermline. It would also make public transport more accessible and a more viable alternative, improving journey times into Edinburgh and beyond not just for Fifers, but for everyone travelling by train between Aberdeen, Inverness, Perth and Edinburgh. Crucially, it would help in the drive to ensure that Scotland meets its ambitious climate change targets, reducing air pollution levels and carbon emissions.
Linked to that development must be an investment in making Halbeath park and choose more accessible to pedestrians. I commend the excellent work of Living Streets Scotland, which has been working closely with the Halbeath tenants and residents association in my constituency to improve the environment for pedestrians of all ages and abilities. One of the key long-term issues raised by local residents is access to the Halbeath facility. Currently, unless they travel there by car or bus, there is simply no safe way for local residents to get there from Halbeath or from the Duloch area.
Both Transport Scotland and Fife Council need to do more to make the Halbeath facility a genuine travel option for many of my constituents who either do not have a car or simply want to leave the car at home. One of the six Transport Scotland objectives for the ScotRail franchise is to improve accessibility to services and stations, so it is absolutely vital that any plans for a new railway station include well-lit walking routes that allow the community on its doorstep to walk or cycle there safely.
Clearly, as Alex said, it all comes at a cost, but I believe that it is an investment that the Scottish Government should be prepared to make and one that would deliver real returns, not just for Fife but for Scotland. It is time to be more ambitious for our railways and for the public transport, cycling and walking network across Scotland. Alex has already asked the minister to commit to ensuring that the funding is in place to make that a reality, and I echo his request. I hope that the minister will confirm that the funding and timescale for that vital and strategically important project will be put in place, because it will make a huge difference, not just to the Fife economy and to Fife commuters, but to Scotland.
I remind members that it is important to use people’s full names. It is a matter of accessibility.
17:56
I, too, add my congratulations to Alex Rowley on securing this debate on the Halbeath park and ride. The new Forth bridge is an exciting development and one that is essential to the continued growth of Fife and of Scotland’s economy, and it is one for which I and other Labour party members in Fife campaigned over a long period. There has been a huge increase in west Fife’s population in recent years, and improved transport links over the Forth are needed to support the economies of Edinburgh, Fife and the central belt.
Since I became an MSP, I have become a regular user of public transport between Fife and Edinburgh and have gained an insight into the trials and tribulations of the travel choices facing commuters from west Fife. Like many other commuters, my decision to take the car, bus or train is influenced by the weather, my diary and things that I have to do later in the day, which might include work or family commitments, shopping or even socialising. Timing is critical. I have learned that the car parks at Inverkeithing, Rosyth, Dunfermline Town and Dunfermline Queen Margaret stations are usually full on week days by 8 o’clock, and it is often standing room only on the peak-time trains between Edinburgh and Fife.
If one does have to use one’s car to drive over the bridge, the traffic on the approach can often tail back well beyond the junctions off the M90, and then one has to find somewhere to park at an affordable rate when one gets to Edinburgh. Car sharing is an option, but in my experience, despite there now being three Labour MSPs travelling from west Fife to the Scottish Parliament every day, different schedules can make car sharing difficult.
Although it has been open only a matter of months, the success of the new park and ride at Halbeath in boosting bus travel is entirely understandable. That said, there is more that could be done and I am pleased that the motion recognises the opportunity to increase the potential of the scheme. We now have 1,000 spaces at Halbeath, where the choice for car drivers is limited to bus or car share, in a facility that is surrounded by new housing development—in the eastern expansion at Dunfermline, at Kelty, just off the next junction on the M90, and in the village of Crossgates, which is located right beside the park and ride and has seen several new neighbourhoods added to the village in recent years, and is still growing.
There is much that could be done to improve the value of the site in promoting modal shift away from car use, and the most obvious improvement would be the installation of a rail halt and railway station. There is a clear demand for that. As I mentioned, many of the car parks at stations in west Fife are often full to overflowing, which creates inevitable overspill into surrounding streets and inconvenience for local residents. It has even been suggested that some of the well-documented parking problems at Queen Margaret hospital are caused by overspill parking from the nearby Dunfermline Queen Margaret station.
Although I live in Dunfermline and it is only 1.6 miles from my house to the station, I tend to take the car to the station. Walking is not always convenient and for many people it is not possible, because of time constraints or mobility problems, so access to transport interchanges is a key factor in considering whether the travelling public will use them.
I would like to thank Living Streets, which has made me aware of the work that it did with residents of Halbeath and has called for improvements to the local environment for pedestrians of all ages and abilities, and for the removal of barriers and the creation of new paths in the local community, which would give local residents, as well as those arriving by car, the opportunity to use the new facility. I will be asking Fife Council to keep that on its radar.
Until just a few weeks ago, I was the Fife councillor for Crossgates, where the park and ride is sited. The community council regularly complained to me that the facility should be called Crossgates park and ride, and that it should be accessible to pedestrians and cyclists from the village. Having failed to get the name changed, I am keen to do what I can to widen access for local people. Crossgates has a proud record of environmental activism and it wants to see that extended to its travel choices.
There is a similar access issue in Cowdenbeath, which has a train station just over three miles from the new park and ride. Anyone who made the journey to Cowdenbeath for the recent by-election will know that the station is not accessible to people who have mobility problems and there is no adjacent taxi access or parking. A new rail halt, although not in the town itself, could provide additional accessible options for rail travellers in Fife while easing the pressure on stations such as Cowdenbeath.
At the heart of the park and ride, and of any public transport development, should be a commitment to the needs of those who use the services and those who could be encouraged or assisted to do so. It is equally important to improve the quality of life for people who live in communities surrounding railway stations and other transport hubs.
The Halbeath facility has the potential to deliver modal shift, support low carbon options, increase local access, and provide for increased mobility. We must surely aim for that.
18:01
I congratulate Alex Rowley on securing his first members’ business debate. He has raised an issue that is important to the people of Fife and to everyone who travels across the Forth on this route, as I often do myself.
The benefits of the Halbeath park-and-ride scheme are undeniable. As Alex Rowley mentioned, I was pleased to go along to the start of the works and to their completion. It is a fantastic facility that was delivered by a local company in co-operation with Fife Council. It provides additional capacity for Edinburgh commuters, an alternative interchange for journeys across Fife, and a service for travellers to Edinburgh airport. It also provides a further facility for long-distance coach services.
This project, together with the existing highly successful Inverkeithing park and ride, which was mentioned earlier, complements the Forth replacement crossing—the Queensferry crossing—which is the largest civil engineering scheme in Scotland for a generation. When the Queensferry crossing opens in 2016, bus passengers who use the park-and-ride facilities will enjoy substantial reductions in their journey times. Those reductions of up to 30 minutes between Halbeath and west Edinburgh will come about because of our investment in new motorway bus lanes and the creation of a dedicated public transport corridor on the existing Forth road bridge.
Much of what we want to do on transport comes down to resources. Even within Fife Council’s area—and this is replicated across Scotland—we have demands for a St Andrews rail link and for rail development at Leven. If we add that to the £1.4 billion that is being spent on the Forth replacement crossing, and the money that has been spent on the park and ride that has been linked to the new crossing, we can see that substantial investment has been made, and there are substantial demands for further investment. That is true across the country, but we have to prioritise.
As Annabelle Ewing mentioned, we have had substantial cuts. More than a quarter of our capital has been cut since 2010-11. Despite that, we have sought to maintain our investment in Scotland’s infrastructure. Members have mentioned the pressure on train station parking facilities. That is down to the fact that record numbers of passenger journeys—up to 85 million—are being made by train. We will make further substantial investment—£5 billion—in our rail infrastructure over the next control period.
I was interested in Cara Hilton’s point about walking to the park and ride. There is scope for that. Fife Council can bid for the Sustrans money that will be made available for joint projects. It is welcome that she has mentioned the issue, because it is often talked about only in relation to cycling. Walking is very important and, as she said, the route should be well lit and safe for the people who want to use it. There is scope to do that just now and I am interested in listening to any proposal. It would have to be made with the co-operation of Fife Council, but we are happy to consider it.
We recognise the importance of infrastructure to sustaining our economy and, as Alex Rowley said, to providing access to opportunities and bringing our communities together. We believe that the investments that we have made have helped to deliver that. The construction of these projects has helped the economy by creating jobs, as capital projects tend to be labour intensive.
We remain committed to delivering the recommendations of the 2008 strategic transport projects review, which includes the Inverkeithing to Halbeath line, although, as Annabelle Ewing mentioned, it is over the timescale. We will deliver projects as and when resources allow, because our commitments must be conditional on having the funds to deliver them. We recognise that the Inverkeithing to Halbeath line will deliver benefits, some of which have been mentioned.
Although we do not currently have a plan to open a railway station at the Halbeath park-and-ride site, we remain committed to improving access to the Scottish rail network. When I attended the opening of the site, with local council representatives, the issue of the station was raised. In response, I pointed out the availability of the £30 million station investment fund. I suppose that, like Annabelle Ewing, I anticipated that a proposal would come forward.
Such a proposal really has to be discussed first of all with Fife Council and the local regional transport partnership, which will have to go through the Scottish transport appraisal guidance process to consider whether a rail halt is a priority and a good investment. We do that with all our rail investments. It is not enough simply to say that we should have a station; it has to be evidenced by a proper study.
To those who wish to have a station at Halbeath, I suggest—as we suggest in any such situation throughout the country—that, as a first step, they discuss the proposal with the regional transport partnership, which in this case is SEStran. In turn, SEStran can assess the proposal in line with its local and regional transport priorities. If SEStran wishes to progress the proposal, it will undertake a STAG appraisal. That work will first identify whether there is a need for improved transport connectivity in the area and, if there is, consider all potential transport options objectively, and not just rail. That is not to say that it would not be rail, but it has to be clear that rail is the best investment. That is the route that I would recommend that the promoters of the idea take.
Our commitment to railways is reflected in the £5 billion package of funding and investment until 2019, which will support major projects and improvements to infrastructure.
The impact of the next ScotRail franchise was mentioned. Next year, we will have two exciting franchises in operation. The specification for the ScotRail and Caledonian sleeper franchises underlines the Government’s commitment to providing enhanced rail services throughout Scotland. We are keen to see improvements throughout the network to ensure that rail is competitive with travel by car.
Our desire for improvement relates to all aspects of the journey experience, including improvements to the passenger environment, on-board services and service frequency, as well as journey time reductions to and from our major cities.
Our record of investment in transport is substantial and stands for itself. I am proud of the investment that we have made and will continue to make. I underline what is perhaps an obvious point, which is that an efficient transport network in Scotland creates employment and stimulates growth, which in turn creates conditions of advantage and opportunity, allows business access to a skilled workforce and enables businesses to deliver goods and services to market.
On the central point about the development of rail services, I reiterate that discussion with SEStran and the council would be the first port of call.
Meeting closed at 18:08.Previous
Decision Time