Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government published its draft National Transport Strategy for consultation on 31 July 2019. It recognises the importance of improving the quality of travel information and providing an integrated transport network in order to achieve our vision for transport: We will have a sustainable, inclusive and accessible transport system, helping deliver a healthier, fairer and more prosperous Scotland for communities, businesses and visitors.

The Scottish Government funds Traveline Scotland which provides multi-modal passenger information on public transport services in Scotland. Since 2018, Traveline Scotland has improved access to real time information when journey planning and to push alerts on travel disruption information. Furthermore, the Transport (Scotland) Bill will provide local authorities with a range of tools to improve bus services depending on local needs and includes measures to improve the information available to passengers on bus services. Our rail and ferry contracts commit operators to providing passenger information and engaging with other operators on integration between services. On rail this includes the work of the Transport Integration Group and a range of committed obligations and investments aimed at improving passenger information and integration. On ferries this includes funding for CalMac Ferries Ltd (CFL) to procure a new booking, reservation and ticketing system, which will include the provision of integrated ticketing capability.

In addition, the Mobility as a Service (MaaS) concept includes the integration of various modes of transport to provide people with easy, digital access to travel information to support travel choices. We have launched the MaaS Investment fund with £2 million funding over three years to grow the evidence base on the potential for delivery of MaaS solutions in Scotland for the benefit of end users. The MaaS fund was launched on 20 June 2019 during the MaaS Scotland event.

There have been eight rounds of the Scottish Green Bus Fund (SGBF). Funding amounting to £17.2 million has seen the introduction of 475 low carbon vehicles to the fleet. SGBF award details are published on the Transport Scotland website at:

https://www.transport.gov.scot/public-transport/buses/scottish-green-bus-fund/#45456 .

Transport Scotland’s Switched on Towns and Cities initiative was announced in June 2018. The challenge fund attracted a number of bids from Local Authorities and 5 successful applications received funding, averaging £2.4m each over 2 fiscal years. The successful bids were from Dundee, Edinburgh, Falkirk, Glasgow and Stirling.

With the programme expected to have further funding rounds, making up to 5 awards in each round, we will be on course to developing up to 10 electric towns and cities in Scotland by December 2019.

Since September 2018 there has been a 33% increase in seating on Eastern services and 11% increase to services in Central Scotland.

As more of the new fleet of Hitachi Class 385’s and High Speed Trains are introduced this will allow existing, refurbished diesel trains to be cascaded onto other routes enabling more seats and services to be provided across the country during 2019-20.

The Scottish Government has supported the completed installation of 1369 electric vehicle charge points in homes, businesses and communities across Scotland, including 173 public charge points since September 2018, with a further 150 public charge points in the final process of being installed. In addition to the comprehensive ChargePlace Scotland network, we continue to work with industry including commercial public charge point providers to maximise investment in and increase the availability of public charging in Scotland.

The Scottish Government has, through Transport Scotland’s Switched on Fleets initiative, supported orders for over 700 ultra-low emission vehicles in the public sector since September 2018. This brings the total number of ultra-low emission vehicles supported by the Scottish Government since 2014 to over 1250, with plans to extend that number further this year.

A total number of 173 public charge points have been added to the ChargePlace Scotland network since September 2018, with a further 150 in the final process of being added to the network. In addition to the comprehensive ChargePlace Scotland network, we continue to work with industry including commercial public charge point providers to maximise investment in and increase the availability of public charging in Scotland..

Between March 2018 and March 2019, the number of green buses operating in Scotland changed from 577 to 793, an increase of 216. Data is not available to detail the change in the number of green buses in Scotland since September 2018.

The estimates for low carbon and renewable energy jobs in Scotland are not published by the Scottish Government, but instead they are compiled and published by the UK Office for National Statistics (ONS) in their "UK Environmental Accounts: Low Carbon and Renewable Energy Economy Survey". The dataset and methodology, including breakdown by sector and technology, are available on the ONS website. The dataset does not include a breakdown for Scottish Parliamentary regions, including West Scotland.

https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/environmentalaccounts/bulletins/finalestimates/2017

https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/environmentalaccounts/datasets/lowcarbonand
renewableenergyeconomyindirectestimatesdataset

There are currently no remote sensing air quality monitors on local and trunk roads. The Scottish Government will introduce such sensors to the trunk road network initially from August 2019.