Chamber and committees

Transport Scotland is responsible for preventing snow and ice endangering the safe passage of pedestrians and vehicles on trunk roads in Scotland. Significant planning is undertaken in advance of winter to ensure that the trunk road operating companies are prepared and to share lessons learned from previous years. The trunk road Operating Companies each have a Winter Service Plan, which is available online at:

http://www.transport.gov.scot/road/winter-service-ready-winter-and-severe-weather

The delivery and resilience of current winter communication procedures across Scotland were tested during one-day events on 18 and 20 October 2016, the principle being to share best practice. This involved representatives from our Operating Companies, Transport Scotland, Traffic Scotland, Police Scotland, local authorities and Transport Scotland’s Performance Audit Group (PAG).

Local authorities are responsible for winter service operations on local roads.

The ScotRail Alliance has confirmed that winter plans have been introduced and that they have access to sufficient stocks of salt. As in previous years, The Alliance will be running a series of winter roadshow events, commencing on 5 December 2016, at key stations to engage with the public.

Contingency plans are available in the event of stations not being treated when required, as required in their Franchise Agreement.

Further information is available online at: https://www.scotrail.co.uk/winter .

The Scottish Government has put in place a process to monitor the delivery of ScotRail's Performance Improvement Plan and this includes challenging them on the progress being made towards delivering the initiatives set out in the plan to improve performance. As part of the monitoring process, Transport Scotland officials challenged ScotRail on the incident which occurred on 17 November to understand the root cause and lessons to be learned following the incident.

The incident blocked all lines outside Edinburgh Waverley during the busy morning peak. Since the incident ScotRail have taken measures to avoid the practice of trains crossing over all lines to reduce the possibility of such an incident occurring again.

The new fleet of class 385s are being manufactured by Hitachi with Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, trading as Caledonian Rail Leasing, [CRL] funding the 70 trains in a deal worth around £370M.

Abellio ScotRail followed an OJEU (Official Journal of the EU) procurement exercise during its bidding process and entered into a commercial arrangement with [CRL] to lease the 234 new carriages until the end of its franchise term.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-04948 on 5 December 2016. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx

I met with representatives of the 38 degrees group on 19 October 2016, where they presented the petition, raised concerns about ScotRail's performance and shared their experiences of using the rail network in Scotland.

I acknowledged the specific issues they raised by group members and my officials at Transport Scotland will pursue such issues in their monitoring of the ScotRail Improvement Plan.

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-29965 on 4 March 2016. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at: http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx

This information is not held by the Scottish Government. The enforcement of speed limits is an operational matter for Police Scotland.

We do not envisage a shortage of salt for winter service in 2016-2017. Salt stocks were increased for 2011-12 and 2012-13 and have since been maintained to improve Scotland’s resilience should another severe winter arrive. Meanwhile, the Scottish Salt Group has been monitoring the restocking process throughout the summer, including liaising with suppliers to confirm there is adequate salt production to meet the demand and that restocking targets for Scotland are being met.

Local authorities are responsible for winter service operations on local roads. The ScotRail Alliance has confirmed that winter plans have been introduced and that they have access to sufficient stocks of salt. Contingency plans are available in the event of stations not being treated when required, as required in their Franchise Agreement.

The Strategic Partnership Board, chaired by Transport Scotland, and comprising individuals from both within and outside the Scottish Government, last met on 28 September 2016 to discuss a variety of road safety issues with a particular focus on activity following the Road Safety Framework mid-term review.

Each trunk road Operating Company has the responsibility for all aspects of winter service provision, including the procurement of salt for their operational use to treat our trunk roads. A strategic salt supply was established for the first time in Scotland in 2010/11 and should further provisions of strategic salt require to be procured, Transport Scotland will facilitate via Scotland Excel as members. Scotland Excel manages the procurement of high value, high risk goods and services that are commonly used by all local authorities. A range of other commodities can also be procured directly by local authorities or through national contracts managed by the Scottish Government.

Local authorities are responsible for winter service operations on local roads. The ScotRail Alliance has confirmed that winter plans have been introduced and that they have access to sufficient stocks of salt. Contingency plans are available in the event of stations not being treated when required, as required in their Franchise Agreement.