Train Services (Fife)

Part of the debate – in the Scottish Parliament at 5:18 pm on 13 April 2005.

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Photo of Bruce Crawford Bruce Crawford Scottish National Party 5:18, 13 April 2005

As a regular user of the Fife circle line, I welcome the opportunity to debate Scott Barrie's motion. I am grateful to him for giving the chamber the chance to debate the issue today.

I agree with much of what Scott Barrie said. Like him, I recognise that rail services for Fifers are not what they should be and that they certainly require significant improvement. However, I hope that he will forgive me for saying that the motion is somewhat simplistic. For him to have heaped all the problems and blame on to First ScotRail is simplistic, given the complex nature of the arrangements for rail services in Scotland.

I agree that rail services will improve when powers are transferred to Scottish ministers on 1 April 2006. However, the complex arrangements for investing in and running the railways that Fifers use at the moment involve Network Rail, the Scottish Executive, the Strategic Rail Authority and even Fife Council. It can be argued that Network Rail is as much to blame for the unreliability and lack of punctuality of rail services as First ScotRail is and that the SRA is as much to blame for the lack of investment in longer platforms as the franchisee is.

As First ScotRail happens to be the public face of the railway system in Scotland, it has to take much of the heat. However, I have no doubt in my mind that, although the proposed transfer of powers will improve the situation on the rail lines in Scotland, more control will need to be exercised in future over Network Rail, which in turn will need to have a great deal more transparency in its operations.

I know from personal experience and from speaking to other regular travellers that railway users in Fife not only suffer from reliability and punctuality issues, but are affected by the cost issue, which is one of the main contentions raised with me. Some passengers perceive that the Fife line is being used to subsidise other lines in Scotland. As far as Fifers are concerned, they are being hit with a double whammy too far, because not only do they have to pay tolls to cross the bridge, but—according to some of the available figures—they may be subsidising the rest of the line. For instance, on the Edinburgh to Dunfermline line, which is of the order of 19 miles, people are paying 20p per mile to use the service, whereas on the Edinburgh to Bathgate line the cost is 17p and on the Edinburgh to North Berwick line the cost is about 15p. I hope that the minister agrees that it is time that we had price rationalisation in Scotland, so that Fifers do not become the milk cows for the rest of the network.

As far as improvements are concerned, First ScotRail took over running the services only towards the end of last year and it will take a bit of time for it to get to grips with the whole system. There was improvement in the last period on the whole of the east coast line—perhaps not in Fife—but that has slipped back badly because of the storms at the beginning of the year and because the network was closed down by Network Rail for two days. First ScotRail has had to deal with those issues.

Scott Barrie is right to identify the fact that capacity at Waverley is the big issue for Fife. That might not seem to be the case for people getting on the train at Inverkeithing, but it is the big issue that has to be sorted out to deal with the problems in the long term. However, we need to jump forward in vision terms. Scott Barrie mentioned car parking. The situation is a nightmare for the people who live in Inverkeithing. Perhaps it is time to consider a new station to the north of Inverkeithing with dedicated parking facilities to take the heat off Inverkeithing and to improve car parking in the area. There is no reason why we cannot in the longer term have a bus-rail interchange with designated car parking facilities in the Halbeath area. That could take some of the pressure off the Forth road bridge.

I recognise that you have given me extra time, Presiding Officer, for which I am grateful.