Chamber and committees

As the trunk road authority in Scotland, legislation requires Transport Scotland to take such steps as it considers reasonable to prevent snow and ice endangering the safe passage of pedestrians and vehicles over public roads. Transport Scotland discharges this duty by having contracts in place with Operating Companies who ensure the trunk road network is safe, efficient and well managed.

With a fully mobilised winter fleet, our winter service capability has never been higher; and our pre-winter preparations, audits, scenario workshops and weekly winter calls will ensure that there is no room for complacency in our winter service despite the recent mild winters.

We are continually investing in our winter service and for 2017-18 we have 208 vehicles, available for spreading salt and ploughing snow. The number of vehicles servicing trunk roads has been maintained from 2016-17 for this season. All frontline and reserve fleet have ploughing capability.

Dependent on the forecast weather conditions, up to 122 gritters with ploughing capability are deployed to provide precautionary salt treatments to trunk roads. A further 51 gritters are routinely deployed as required to patrol and provide additional salt treatments. The remaining 35 gritters are available to provide support to the frontline and patrol vehicles, as well as to cover breakdowns and essential maintenance.

In 2016-2017, the percentage of trains delayed due to ice (that is, all types of freezing conditions) represented 0.06% of services planned to run. The percentage of trains cancelled represented 0.0045% .

Transport Scotland is working with the ScotRail Alliance to prepare for potential severe winter weather and expect to see further improvements. This will include mobile snow and ice clearance machines and equipment.

ScotRail will implement a robust communications plan will be delivered ensuring passengers are prepared for adverse weather, including customer road shows at key stations throughout December, and the creation of a dedicated website and social media campaign for key messages.

The Scottish Government does not hold statistics on delayed or cancelled bus services.

The number of ferries (a) delayed and (b) cancelled in the last two quarters as defined within the Public Service Contracts with the Scottish Ministers (1 April 2017 to 30 September 2017 inclusive) is as follows:

• CalMac - (a) 1354 delayed and (b) 1222 cancelled out of a total of 80,301 scheduled sailings, 1.69% and 1.52% respectively.

• Serco NorthLink Ferries - (a) 110 delayed and (b) 6 cancelled out of a total of 1,300 scheduled sailings, 8.46% and 0.46% respectively.

• Argyll Ferries Ltd - (a) 5 delayed and (b) 332 cancelled out of a total of 9,677 scheduled sailings, 0.05% and 3.43% respectively.

Transport Scotland is working with the ScotRail Alliance to prepare for potential severe winter weather and expect to see further improvements in operational and customer services and travel advice offered. The preparedness will include snow clearing equipment and machines.

ScotRail will implement a robust communications plan ensuring passengers are prepared for adverse weather, including customer road shows at key stations throughout December, and the creation of a dedicated website and social media campaign for key messages.

ScotRail is obliged to provide the resources to operate the services as set out in the Franchise Agreement, which includes those required for winter preparation measures.

Responsibility for the response time to major disruptions on the Glasgow-Falkirk-Edinburgh railway service is an operational matter and rests with ScotRail and Network Rail.

However, officials from Transport Scotland meet regularly with their counterparts from ScotRail and Network Rail to review and challenge how they respond to major disruptions.

The Scottish Government does not hold the detailed cost breakdown on the amount spent clearing rail tracks of debris in the calendar year, 2016, nor the estimate of expenditure for 2017. However, we would expect, as funder and specifier, that Network Rail will deploy sufficient resources to meet its performance and reliability requirements in Scotland.

Whilst we know severe weather will cause disruption, this Government has taken a wide range of steps to improve our resilience to the challenges of winter, to mitigate its impacts and to recover our transport networks, businesses and get daily life back to normal as quickly as possible. This has been done in partnership with a broad range of public, private and third sector partners and has included new investment, development and innovation - all learning the lessons from recent winters.

Transport Resilience

The Traffic Scotland National Control Centre (TSNCC) at Queensferry co-ordinates a more joined-up response during major travel incidents and severe weather, as well as targetting reduced journey times across the transport network.

The TSNCC hosts the Transport Scotland Multi-Agency Response Team (MART) arrangements which enable a strategic overview of event and incident handling. This is a joint process with Police Scotland and includes trunk road Operating Companies, the Scotrail Alliance, the Met Office and others. We have also seconded personnel from Police Scotland, British Transport Police and the Met Office to enhance closer partnership working.

Transport Scotland has a specific Resilience Team, which ensures there are arrangements in place to prepare and provide support for major impacts to the transport network. They played a full part in all recent, major resilience events in Scotland including the closure of the Forth Road Bridge and the closure of M80 in February as a result of snow. They are currently focusing on working alongside the UK Government departments to prepare for Counter Terrorism responses.

Transport Scotland, through Traffic Scotland, has developed and utilises multiple technology platforms to inform transport network users of issues, alternative routes and methods of travel to minimise transport disruption. These platforms include desktop and mobile websites, smartphone apps, internet radio, a customer care line and social media.

Trunk Roads

The winter service, provided across Scotland from the start of October through to mid-May, is a critical front-line service. Winter weather has and will cause disruption on our roads, with the actions we are taking and with road users playing their part by planning ahead, together we can get Scotland moving throughout the winter.

New contract specifications, greater use of technology and getting information to people ‘on the move’ are just a few of the ways we have strengthened the Winter Treatments, Decision Making and Communication with Road Users. The enhanced preparedness is also beneficial outside of winter, as the procedures and practices such as the MART improve our resilience for other severe weather events and major events such as last year’s T in the Park and The Open golf.

Rail

We are working with The ScotRail Alliance to prepare for potential severe winter weather and expect to see further improvements in operational and customer services and travel advice offered. This will include;

• Continued improvements across all ScotRail fleets to improve their robustness to the issues caused by winter weather in previous years.

• ScotRail depots and maintenance facilities to have winter maintenance equipment installed and undertake a winter resilience check at all depots and train fleets.

• Winter working preparation for all stations, ensuring de-icing equipment and materials will be in place.

• Network Rail will carry out a winter resilience check both at regional and local level.

• Network Rail will again make available the mobile snow and ice clearance machine that can thaw junctions quickly. In addition all local teams will be equipped with winter clearance equipment and provided with latest weather forecast and impact briefing.

• A robust communications plan will be delivered ensuring passengers are prepared for adverse weather, including customer road shows at key stations throughout December, and the creation of a dedicated website and social media campaign for key messages.

Ferries

The Scottish Government is committed to maintain and improving lifeline ferry services that play a key role in supporting the economic, social and cultural development of island and remote communities.

During periods of bad weather the ferry operators providing lifeline ferry services to the Scottish Government under a Public Service Contract will, where possible, advise the travelling public in advance of any potential disruption. This information is provided via the ferry operator’s website, texting, social media, as well as the national and local media.

In addition, where periods of bad weather are anticipated, the ferry operator will seek to try and flex the scheduled ferry service timetable to provide sailings in advance of, or following on from, the disruption to the timetabled services, to try and minimise any impact on our remote and island communities.

Ferry travel has its own distinct challenges, particularly high winds, and the ship’s Master has a duty to ensure the safety of passengers above other considerations. The Merchant Shipping (Master’s Discretion) Regulations 1997 gives the ship’s Master sole responsibility for deciding whether it is safe to sail.

Aviation

Working towards winter 2017-18 our own airport group, Highlands and Islands Airports Ltd (HIAL), has undertaken airline and third party pre winter meetings. Airport snow plans are in the process of being reviewed ahead of the winter period to ensure all departments are fully aware of their responsibilities during adverse weather.

Aberdeen Airport has a fully robust winter plan in place which has been used in previous years and is ready for implementation as and when the weather arrives. This includes both airside and landside facilities, access and egress for passengers and staff and additional staff resource when required.

Glasgow Airport has a robust and detailed winter operations plan in place which sets out how airport operations will be maintained during adverse weather conditions, details staff training and clearance criteria and methods.

Glasgow Prestwick Airport has its Winter Operation Plan reviewed annually and the next plan will be ready for issue imminently. All winter operational equipment has been serviced and training with the operational staff will have taken place before the start of the season.

Edinburgh Airport winter operations have been updated for the new season. Winter Operations staff training material has been updated and training started on 25 September. A collaborative meeting has reviewed winter operations plans for all operators and snow fleet maintenance is ongoing.

Floods are natural events and can affect all modes of transport however, safety for all transport users is our primary concern.

(a) We have treated local government very fairly, despite the cuts to the Scottish Budget from the UK Government.

Taking the 2017-18 local government finance settlement plus the other sources of income available to councils through reforms to council tax and funding for Health and Social Care Integration, the overall increase in spending power to support local authority services amounted to over £383 million or 3.7 per cent.

The vast majority of the funding provided by the Scottish Government to local government is in the form of a block grant. It is then the responsibility of each local authority to allocate the total financial resources available to it on the basis of local needs and priorities having first fulfilled its statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities, including the Scottish Government’s key strategic objectives.

Reducing flood risk is a priority for the Scottish Government and we are working in partnership with SEPA, local authorities and others to deliver the first round of flood risk strategies. As part of this, we are making £42 million available each year to local authorities to invest in flood protection. For background, the first round of the flood risk strategies which deliver actions to reduce flood risk across Scotland were published in December 2015 and cover a 6 year cycle to 2021.

We are a strategic partner of the Scotland National Centre for Resilience (NCR) and feed into their work which aims to improve on the understanding of the impact of natural hazards and provide support to responders and communities including practical tool kits and resources for those who operate on the ground, and to ensure communities across the country are fully and adequately prepared for natural hazards such as flooding and landslides.

We are also seeking to obtain a national register of emergency temporary flood (defence) assets that we could use upon request, in conjunction with the various local authority Local Planning District flood forums. In addition, we are participating in Regional Resilience Partnership events to stress-test resilience response to severe weather including flooding.

(b) Our Trunk Road Operating Companies are contracted to ensure that drainage systems are maintained, are structurally sound and are able to remove water from trafficked surfaces and sub-layers without causing pollution or flooding and that the effects of any flooding are mitigated.

Information contained within our asset management systems allows operators to assess the whole network and to identify those areas at greater risk from flooding. This allows capital investment funds to be allocated to drainage improvement schemes using a risk-based approach with the aim of reducing the likelihood or consequence of flooding. As part of this approach we have made funds of £3m available this financial year to carry out maintenance and improvements to drainage systems across the Scottish trunk road network.

Our Operating Companies routinely inspect the trunk road network at 7-day intervals. These inspections are primarily to identify defects that require prompt attention (Category 1 defects) because they present, or could present, an immediate hazard to road users. This includes issues associated with flooding and drainage. Flooding events are recorded and this information is used to inform the development of future maintenance and investment programmes.

In addition to this, our Operating Companies also monitor the trunk road network during periods of heavy or sustained rainfall to provide an appropriate response endeavouring to keep roads open where possible or to close them should the flooding compromise the safety of road users. They have appropriate plant, equipment and resources including traffic management strategically placed across the trunk road network to deal with flooding events in a timely and effective manner.

Our Operating Companies are required to attend any incident on the trunk road network within 20 minutes on our major routes where we operate a Trunk Road Incident Support Service (TRISS) or within a maximum of 1.5 hours response time on all other routes through our Incident Support Units. Should the flooding cease to abate further secondary and back-up plant, equipment and resources are available at short notice to be deployed and assist with alleviating the flooding issues encountered.

In March 2013, Transport Scotland opened the purpose-built Traffic Scotland National Control Centre (TSNCC) at South Queensferry which aims to reduce journey times across the transport network through direct communication with the travelling public, via a number of media platforms, especially during periods of severe weather.

The TSNCC also hosts the Multi-Agency Response Team (MART) arrangements which co-ordinates a joined-up response during weather events including flooding. Partners include Police Scotland, Operating Companies, the Scotrail Alliance and the Met Office, and provides a strategic overview of event and incident handling.

The number of ferries that were (a) delayed and (b) cancelled in winter 2016-17 (24 October 2016 to 30 March 2017 inclusive) as defined within the Public Service Contracts with the Scottish Ministers due to weather conditions is as follows:

• CalMac - (a) 522 delayed and (b) 1768 cancelled out of a total of 48,011 scheduled sailings, 1.6% and 3.68% respectively.

• Serco NorthLink Ferries - (a) 101 delayed and (b) 28 cancelled out of a total of 884 scheduled sailings, 11.43% and 3.17% respectively.

• Argyll Ferries Ltd - (a) 27 delayed and (b) 305 cancelled out of a total of 8,256 scheduled sailings, 0.33% and 3.58% respectively.

During periods of bad weather the ferry operators providing lifeline ferry services to the Scottish Government under a Public Service Contract will, where possible, advise the travelling public in advance of any potential disruption. This information is provided via the ferry operator’s website, texting, social media, as well as the national and local media.

In addition, where periods of bad weather are anticipated, the ferry operator will seek to try and flex the scheduled ferry service timetable to provide sailings in advance of, or following on from, the disruption to the timetabled services, to try and minimise any impact on our remote and island communities.