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Presentation to: Inaugural meeting of North East Rail Forum – July 2014. Jerry Farquharson Director of Business Planning First ScotRail. Background. 95% of passenger rail services in Scotland 2,300 services a day / 351 stations Caledonian Sleeper: 800 beds between Scotland and London
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Presentation to: Inaugural meeting of North East Rail Forum – July 2014 Jerry Farquharson Director of Business Planning First ScotRail
Background • 95% of passenger rail services in Scotland • 2,300 services a day / 351 stations • Caledonian Sleeper: 800 beds between Scotland and London • Over 4,700 staff – up more than 35% since start of franchise • Strathclyde rail network the largest outside London • Train miles increased by 19% to 44.4m • Punctuality improvement • 6th highest in the UK: • 2nd highest of regional TOCs
Since 2004 ….. • Introduced an hourly service between Aberdeen and Inverurie with 2500 extra seats; • Introduced enhanced level of Sunday services to and from Aberdeen; • Re-opened Laurencekirk Station - after absence of 42 years; • Rolled out Wifi at stations and on trains. Making the North East of Scotland a better place to live and work
Since 2004 ….. Aberdeen : Installation of first class lounge, refurbishment of public toilets, automatic ticket gates and a new car park with more than 100 spaces; Dyce : new footbridge and lifts, and a bus link operated by Stagecoach; Insch : car park extension with up to 34 extra spaces; Inverurie : new cycle shelter and station café. Making the North East of Scotland a better place to live and work
Since 2004 ….. Aberdeen City 4.4m passenger journeys in 2013-14 – up 65% Aberdeenshire 1.4m passenger journeys in 2013-14 – up 98% North East area: More than 7m passenger journeys a year – up almost 50%
2014-15 • Extension of one or two services to Huntly; • Additional evening peak service to Inverurie; • Off peak fares frozen in 2014 / peak fares RPI -1% • Aberdeen - New ‘Ticket On Demand’ Machine • Dyce - New waiting shelter, Ticket Vending Machine (TVM) • Elgin - Access For All Funding • Portlethen - Platform extension, TVM • Huntly - Replacement of Customer Information System (CIS), new cycle shelter • Insch - Replacement of CIS • All Stations - Smart - Platform RolloutValidators on all Stations, up-grade of all TVMs and re-painting/re-branding by end of 2014
Future Issues… • Future Issues: • Rail capacity – to the north and south of Aberdeen; • Local versus Long Distance train service specification; • Journey times to Glasgow, Edinburgh and ?; • Extremity of commuting belt north of Aberdeen, Is it: • Inverurie, • Huntly, • Or ? • Seating capacities • Interchange at Aberdeen station; • Integration with other transport modes
Supporting the North East economyFra Fraser of Allander Institute Economic Impact Report: • ScotRail injects some £17.6million a year into the North East economy alone as a result of its activities; • Enables total employment of 670 people in the North East; • Every ScotRail job supports an additional 1.45 jobs elsewhere - and that for every £1 paid to its employees, another £0.99 in wages is generated in Scotland.