Chamber and committees

Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S4W-08958

Asked by: Elaine Murray, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 31 July 2012
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 21 August 2012

To ask the Scottish Government whether the Edinburgh Glasgow Improvement Programme team considered running longer trains on the main Edinburgh/Glasgow line prior to Jacobs Consultancy's review of the programme.

Question reference: S4W-08955

Asked by: Elaine Murray, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 31 July 2012
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 21 August 2012

To ask the Scottish Government when (a) ScotRail and (b) Network Rail were first advised that Transport Scotland had commissioned Jacobs Consultancy to review the Edinburgh Glasgow Improvement Programme.

Question reference: S4W-08954

Asked by: Elaine Murray, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 31 July 2012
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 21 August 2012

To ask the Scottish Government whether Jacobs Consultancy discussed its review of the Edinburgh Glasgow Improvement Programme with (a) Network Rail and (b) ScotRail when preparing its report.

Question reference: S4W-08953

Asked by: Elaine Murray, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 31 July 2012
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 21 August 2012

To ask the Scottish Government whether it expects (a) Glasgow City Council, (b) Network Rail and (c) Buchanan Partnership to contribute financially to the redevelopment of Glasgow Queen Street railway station and the removal of the Millennium Hotel extension.

Question reference: S4W-08956

Asked by: Elaine Murray, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 31 July 2012
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 21 August 2012

To ask the Scottish Government whether the Jacobs Consultancy report for Transport Scotland on its review of the Edinburgh Glasgow Improvement Programme is publicly available and, if so, where.

Question reference: S4W-08960

Asked by: Elaine Murray, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 31 July 2012
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 21 August 2012

To ask the Scottish Government whether rail services between Cumbernauld and Glasgow will take longer as a result of the route accommodating electric services and diesel trains to Stirling.

Question reference: S4W-08962

Asked by: Elaine Murray, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 31 July 2012
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 17 August 2012

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will ask Transport Scotland to review its proposed reduction in the train service between Ayr and Paisley Gilmour Street.

Question reference: S4W-08959

Asked by: Elaine Murray, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 31 July 2012
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 15 August 2012

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the Glasgow Crossrail link.

Glasgow Crossrail was considered as part of the Strategic Transport Projects Review (STPR) and rejected as it would not make best use of the rail network. As a standalone intervention it would not achieve the step change necessary to deliver significant improvements for Glasgow and the west of Scotland.

In contrast, the West of Scotland Strategic Rail Enhancements (STPR Intervention 24) supports objectives to address capacity problems at Glasgow Central and Queen Street, offering additional strategic connectivity and improving connections in and around Glasgow.

To achieve this, the Scottish Government are investing £430 million over 16 years on the recently introduced Class 380 electric trains and £50 million on directly related infrastructure improvements.

Question reference: S4W-08961

Asked by: Elaine Murray, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 31 July 2012
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 15 August 2012

To ask the Scottish Government whether the additional train services between Glasgow and Ayr under consideration by Transport Scotland will stop at Paisley Gilmour Street and what the reasons are for its position on this matter.

From December 2012, there will be two new fast trains which will operate each hour from Ayr to Glasgow, running non-stop from Kilwinning thus not calling at Paisley Gilmour Street.

All routes will benefit from reduced journey times with some services being up to ten minutes quicker than currently thus delivering the ministerial commitment to meaningfully reduce journey times in an affordable manner with no increase in franchise subsidy. The new timetable delivers these objectives by matching seating capacity on each service with forecast passenger demand. Peak hour services remain similar to the current service pattern so the vast majority of passengers who travel between Ayr and Paisley are unaffected. Adding more Paisley calls to the off peak services will result in increased costs, overcrowding of some services, increased journey times for the majority of passengers on each train and a reduction in the number of trains arriving on time each day.

Question reference: S4W-08845

Asked by: Elaine Murray, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 July 2012
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 15 August 2012

To ask the Scottish Government what sections of rail track will be electrified in each year until 2020.

We are committed to the electrification of the rail network as set out in our High Level Output Specification published on 21 June 2012, which requires Network Rail to develop and implement a rolling programme of electrification that will cover around 100 single track kilometres per annum following completion of Phase 1 of the Edinburgh to Glasgow Improvements Programme.

Specific routes are to be agreed with the Scottish ministers in advance, and are expected to include the Glasgow to Edinburgh via Shotts and Rutherglen to Coatbridge and Whifflet lines.