Delay fears over rural rail plan

Less maintenance on rural lines could see services slowed

Rail users on regional and rural lines in Scotland could face longer journey times under new proposals from the Strategic Rail Authority.

The authority wants to concentrate on intercity and busy commuter routes and track renewal in other areas could be cut by up to 50%, the BBC has learned.

The move means that services across the country, from Dumfries to Wick, would suffer.

But it should lead to big improvements on key high-speed routes, and commuter services into London.

The SRA has suggested the plans as part of a consultation document on ways of getting better value for money from government rail spending.

This is not about cuts, this is about targeting money where its best spent Richard Bowker, SRA chairman Beeching's shadow on rural lines

It said reducing the amount of track renewal and maintenance of structures such as bridges, tunnels and earthworks could save £600m a year.

SRA chairman Richard Bowker said: "Let's target the places where investment gets us the best bang for the buck.

"This is not about cuts, this is about targeting money where it's best spent."

Frank Roach, development manager for the Highland Rail Partnership, said the SRA was making decisions without properly consulting the Scottish Executive.

Scottish Transport Minister Nicol Stephen admitted he was not fully briefed on the plans but said he would be writing to Mr Bowker.

We want to make sure that these proposals are, if necessary, amended to ensure they protect rural services in Scotland Nicol Stephen, Scottish Transport Minister

"We were not consulted on the detail of the proposals but Richard Bowker has made it clear that these are open for consultation and I am writing to him expressing our concern and would be pleased to meet with him in due course," said Mr Stephen.

"We want to make sure that these proposals are, if necessary, amended to ensure they protect rural services in Scotland and protect the ambitious proposals the executive has to maintain and expand those services.

"Anything that gets in the way of that we need early discussion on."

He added that the detail of the plans had to be clarified in order to take forward executive proposals for the successor to ScotRail.

Scottish National Party transport spokesman Kenny MacAskill said: "The Strategic Rail Authority is proposing a two tier service and sadly Scotland is in the second class carriage."

'Timetables adapted'

The lines affected are the entire Strathclyde Passenger Transport area, Inverness to Aberdeen, Fort William to Mallaig, Glasgow to Stranraer, and Glasgow to Dumfries.

Rail lines would be divided into two categories according to how heavily they are used, under the proposals.

Group One would cover intercity lines, London and south-east lines and "main secondary routes".

Passengers on busy commuter routes could benefit from the changes

Major secondary routes would include those that have a regular London service, those that link ports, cross-Pennine services and the principle Scottish network.

Group Two would include other secondary routes, rural lines and freight lines.

Broadly speaking maintenance would be cut by 50% on the Group Two lines.

This would lead, according to the consultation document, to "preventative maintenance only as part of major refurbishment of an asset".

'No closures'

It would also mean "substantially reduced track renewal", and "running times to be reviewed and timetables adapted to reflect extended journey times."

There would be more work on rural lines during the normal working week, rather than at weekends.

Mr Bowker stressed there would be no line closures.

The consultation document's results will be delivered to the rail regulator, Tom Winsor, who is in control of the future size and scope of track maintenance on the network.

His final decisions on this, and on the level of funding that the track operator Network Rail should receive, will be made at the end of the year.