Chamber and committees

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.

The budget for the programme is £650 million and will be delivered within the next control period (2014-19). The breakdown of this cost is commercially sensitive.

The first phase announced on 4 July will be delivered within the next Control Period (2014-19).

Further elements of EGIP including the electrification of Stirling, Dunblane and Alloa services, Glasgow connectivity with Edinburgh Gateway station and the proposal for 6 trains per hour on the route via Falkirk, could be delivered in future phases. The timing and specification of future phases will be dependent on other considerations including High Speed Rail, and opportunities that presents to connect Edinburgh and Glasgow, and wider capacity and affordability issues.

The budget estimate for electrification of Stirling, Dunblane and Alloa routes is around £95 million.

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.

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.

I have asked Barry White, Chief Executive of the Scottish Futures Trust (SFT) to respond. His response is as follows:

Over the past 12 months, a total of £131.4 million of benefits and savings have been secured by the Scottish Futures Trust, made up of a variety of elements including efficiency gains, additional investment, avoided costs and by undertaking regular project reviews to bring about better value for money.

SFT works on a wide variety of Scotland-wide infrastructure programmes such as the National Housing Trust, Scotland’s Schools for the Future, Asset Management and hub and the format SFT’s annual Benefits Statement follows is on a project rather than organisation approach.

For example, SFT is working with numerous councils across Scotland to deliver the National Housing Trust (NHT) initiative. So far, over 600 affordable homes for rent are currently under construction, helping to protect over 700 jobs in the house building sector. In effect, without NHT, these homes would not have been built. In response to demand, SFT launched Phase 2 of the NHT initiative late last year.

Additionally, SFT is working with every single local authority across Scotland to drive forward the Scottish Government’s £1.25 billion Scotland's Schools for the Future programme. SFT’s role is to efficiently and effectively manage the programme to help local authorities achieve the very best value for money for their investment in new schools. Such has been SFT’s success in this area that an additional 12 schools are to be built from within the existing budget.

Details of SFT’s work along with the associated benefits are available from the SFT website by way of the following link.

http://www.scottishfuturestrust.org.uk/publications/2011-2012-benefits-statement-supporting-material/.

I have asked Barry White, Chief Executive of the Scottish Futures Trust to respond. His response is as follows:

The Scottish Futures Trust arranged for independent validation of the 2011-12 Benefits Statement from the London School of Economics as well as Grant Thornton, a leading financial and business advisor with relevant experience in infrastructure investment in Scotland.

The construction of the A75 Hardgrove to Kinmount scheme is currently scheduled to commence on site in early 2013 with an anticipated completion date early 2014.