Chamber and committees

Following both the recent Scottish Budget settlement, and the concordat signed between the Scottish Executive and COSLA, decisions on prioritising and funding local and regional transport interventions including enhanced park and ride facilities will be for local authorities working with relevant Regional Transport Partnerships and other key stakeholders.

The Scottish Executive and Transport Scotland will continue to work with all stakeholders to help progress park-and-ride schemes.

The road equivalent tariff pilot exercise will include all the Western Isles to mainland routes. The final phase of the study will quantify the costs and benefits which could arise should road equivalent tariff be applied on a permanent basis and rolled out across the Clyde and Hebrides ferry services and Northern Isles networks.

Yes. As I announced during my visit to Stornoway on 26 February 2008 the pilot exercise will commence on all the Western Isles to mainland routes on 19 October 2008.

Payments of Freight Facilities Grant for rail totalled £2,045,081 in 2004-05, £1,664,207 in 2005-06 and £2,796,575 in 2006-07. For shipping projects payments totalled £318,263 in 2004-05, £72,269 in 2005-06, with no payments in 2006-07.

The High Level Output Specification (HLOS) outlines our plans for electrification of rail routes between 2009-14. Electrification of Highland routes is not included within that medium-term plan. The Strategic Transport Projects Review (STPR) will identify longer term priorities for rail and the benefits of electrification will be considered through that process. The National Planning Framework, which is currently out for consultation, includes the aspiration that all Scotland's railways will be electrified by 2030.

We have no targets for goods traffic growth in the Highlands or any other part of Scotland.

We operate three freight grant schemes which all encourage the transfer of freight from road to rail. Rail freight grants awarded in Scotland over the last 10 years have to date transferred over 58 million lorry miles from road to rail. Our budget for support to the freight industry over the period 1 April 2008 to 31 March 2011 is £44.7 million.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-9227 on 21 February 2008. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

The Scottish Government does not collect information about the performance of English or Welsh water companies. This is the responsibility of their regulator OFWAT. Information about leakage/security of supply for water companies in England and Wales can be found in OFWAT Annual Reports in the publications on their website at:

http://www.ofwat.gov.uk/aptrix/ofwat/publish.nsf/Content/pubshome.

Our High Level Output Specification (HLOS) sets out plans to reduce significantly journey times between Edinburgh and Glasgow and Inverness. Feasibility work on how this will be achieved is currently underway.

No specific targets have been set to reduce travel times on the Inverness to Wick/Thurso, Mallaig to Glasgow and Oban to Glasgow lines. We are, however, committed to improving journey times across Scotland.

We have an aspiration to upgrade the Highland Main Line between Inverness and Perth offering a reduced journey time to Perth and Edinburgh/Glasgow. Current estimates suggest that a journey time saving of around 15 minutes can be achieved on the current fastest trains from Inverness to Perth.

The longer term needs of our national strategic transport corridors are being considered through the Strategic Transport Projects Review (STPR)