Minutes 01 June 06

SCOTTISH RAIL STRATEGY STEERING GROUP

TRANSPORT SCOTLAND
BUCHANAN HOUSE
1st June 2006

Present
Malcolm Reed  Transport Scotland
Frances Duffy  TS
Janet Egdell  TS
Claire Keggie  TS
Denise Manzor TS
Ron McAulay  Network Rail
Nigel Wunsch  NR
Richard Eccles NR
Paul Hadley  Office of Rail Regulation
Gerard O’Hanlon First ScotRail

Apologies
Peter Fuller  TS

Agenda Items 

1. Introductions

Janet Egdell welcomed Claire Keggie who has newly joined Transport Scotland to the group.  Claire will be taking forward work on the Rail Strategy.

2. Minutes of last meeting

Minutes of 10 April 2006 were approved without amendment.

3. Action Points

AP 9 from 16th February - Future Stakeholder Forum is still outstanding.  This will be arranged when clear dates for publication of the SPA, consultation RUS etc have been agreed.

Action Point: Ongoing.

4. Timeline

The overarching National Transport Strategy (NTS) has now been issued for consultation and, subject to Cabinet agreement, is likely to be published around October/ November.
The Rail Strategy is also likely to require Cabinet agreement.  Timings for publication are still under discussion but September is a possibility for issue of a draft.
The RUS timings have changed. Formal consultation is likely to begin in August with publication of the final RUS in February.
 
5. Scottish Planning Assessment

A revised version of the SPA has been received.  This will be issued to the group for comment.

Action Point: Denise Manzor to issue the latest version of the SPA for comment.

6. Route Utilisation Strategy

Nigel Wunsch told the group that following the last meeting of the RUS Stakeholder Management Group, a timetable workshop was held.  This focussed mainly on two main areas routes to Aberdeen and SW Glasgow.  Actions from this are currently being worked through and this is proving more time consuming than anticipated.  It will however be beneficial to have timetable options included in the consultation RUS along with the implications of these.  Consequently it will take longer to produce the draft.

Malcolm Reed expressed concerns that timetable options may assume station closures.  Nigel assured him that the RUS itself will not recommend the closure of stations however it may raise the question of the long term future of some stations.  The time to review stations is when they will need a substantial amount of money spent on them.

7. Feedback and next steps from Rail Strategy Workshop

Janet Egdell told the meeting that an SE/TS Rail Strategy workshop was recently held and a possible framework for the Strategy was discussed.  The attendees were generally content with the direction however several suggestion were made which will be taken on board.

8. Draft Rail Strategy

An early draft of what the Rail Strategy may look like was issued to the Steering Group prior to the meeting and Janet asked for comment on this.
Several comments and suggestions were made which were noted.  The draft will be reissued to the Steering Group for further comment along with the draft summary of the SPA and a summary of the consultation analysis.

Action Point: Denise Manzor to reissue the Draft Rail Strategy along with summary SPA and summary Consultation Analysis.

9 AOB

Network Rail Strategic Business Plan

This will be published by the end of June.  It was suggested that it may helpful to share the content with TS prior to publication.  Nigel Wunsch will contact Janet to set up a meeting for this mid June.

Action Point: Nigel Wunsch to set up a meeting with Janet Egdell mid-month.
East Coast/West Coast Main Line RUS

Malcolm Reed expressed concerns about the potential impacts on Scotland.  TS are already represented on the ECML RUS Management Group.  There is a West Coast Working Group and Richard Eccles will extend an invitation to TS.

Action Point: Richard Eccles to invite TS to the West Coast Working Group

10. Date of next meeting

The next two meetings will be at 11am on 3rd August and 28th September, Transport Scotland offices, Buchanan House.