Transport Flashcards
Outline Scotrail services
In 1997, the brand was used
Privatised the early 1990s under John Major
National Express took over the fIrst franchise the First group had a go.
In 2015, Dutch company Abelio won the franchise right and took over it. They signed a 10 year deal to run it.
The Scottish Government had the option to cancel it after five years if it wasn’t happy with the performance of Abelio…and it will be ending the franchise deal prematurely.
Privatisation was designed to increase competition and save the government money with staffing costs etc.
But being a small country, there is no competition with Scotrail running all the domestic and Scottish intercity rail services.
It does this on behalf of the Scottish government.
Cross-border rail services
These francises are decided by the UK government.
These include the east and west coast main line francises.
FirstGroup replaces Virgin to run West Coast route, 14th August 2019
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-49341772
The Scottish government doesn’t have control of this francise agreement.
Outline Transport Scotland
The Scottish government’s body that look after the following areas…
Aviation, Maritime, freight and canals
Bus, Accessibility and access travel
Plans for a low carbon economy
Major projects like trunk road improvements
Managing Scotrail and the rail system
The trunk road infrastructure
Outline bus services
The Scottish Government’s Transport Bill was amended to allow local authorities to run bus services directly or through an arms-length company (June 2019), the Scotsman writes.
Currently the only municipal bus company in Scotland is Lothian Buses in Edinburgh, whose establishment pre-dates 1980s de-regulation and is owned by Edinburgh City Council, Midlothian Council, East Lothian Council and West Lothian Council.
Under the amendment, it would allow councils to run bus services directly, as well as set up arms-length companies to do so. The Scottish Government has only supported the latter approach.
Three quarters of public transport journeys are made by bus, yet the number of journeys has been falling year on year as services were reduced and routes slashed.
Outline Strathclyde Passenger Transport
Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT) is the largest of Scotland’s seven regional transport partnerships. We run the Glasgow Subway, a host of specialist bus services and are responsible for delivering better public transport for all.
Councils club together to pay for SPT and pay for subsidised routes which would otherwise not be commercially viable.
They also pay for concessionary travel and services such as dial-a-bus.
Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT) is the Regional Transport Partnership for thewest of Scotland. SPT was formed in 2006 as part of the transport framework created by theScottish Government, which is made up of a national transport agency,Transport Scotland, and seven Regional Transport Partnerships.
The SPT area comprises of the following council areas:East Dunbartonshire,East Ayrshire,East Renfrewshire,Glasgow City,Inverclyde,North Ayrshire,North Lanarkshire,Renfrewshire,South Ayrshire,South Lanarkshire,West Dunbartonshireand the Helensburgh and Lomond area ofArgyll and Bute.
Free bus travel - discounts and exemptions
Usually local councils will award bus services subsidies to help run routes for residents.
You’ve seen the example given of Lothian Buses
In the west of Scotland, First group get a large share as well as others such as McGills and Stagecoach.
You are eligible for a free bus pass if you are aged 60 or over. You may also be eligible if you are under 60 and have a disability.
The pass is called aNational Entitlement Card.You need to apply to your local council to get your card. Findcontact details for your council on the Transport Scotland website.
Your card gives you the same rights as a full-fare paying passenger. You can use it on almost all local and long distance bus services, apart from a few services such as premium-fare night buses and city sightseeing buses. You can use it for as many journeys as you want.
The Scottish government pays for this.
The Scottish government is to set up a free bus travel scheme for under-19s as part of an SNP-Green 2020-21 budget deal.
Ministers aim to have “national concessionary travel” system up and running by January 2021, with people aged 18 and under joining the over-60s in being eligible for free bus
Outline the role of the transport Minister
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Local roads
Councils are responsible for the upkeep of local roads and pavements.
This comes out of their budgets.
