To ask the Scottish Government what progress is being made on the extension of the Borders railway south to Carlisle. (S6O-03379)

I am pleased to have recently met the member in Galashiels, together with representatives of the Campaign for Borders Rail, other stakeholders and Scottish Borders Council, which is leading the project on behalf of Borderlands growth deal partners, to discuss progress. The Scottish Government remains committed to providing up to £5 million, via that growth deal, to develop a shared understanding of the benefits, challenges and options to extend the Edinburgh-Tweedbank Borders railway to Carlisle. That will include the undertaking of feasibility work to further develop the business case for the reinstatement of the railway. The council has submitted a proposal, seeking to appoint a project manager to lead the work, and my officials provided their feedback to Scottish Borders Council earlier this week.

I do not think that I have a supplementary question, as the Cabinet secretary has answered my question. I thank her for her very full answer, and I am glad that we have progressed a bit towards appointing a project manager. I also thank her for the recent upbeat meeting with parties, including my colleague Rachael Hamilton and representatives of Scottish Borders Council. I think that we made progress.

I very much appreciated meeting members—I acknowledge that Rachael Hamilton was at the meeting—and I thought that the Campaign for Borders Rail set out a very considered position. The group has campaigned for a long time, and such projects do take a long time to secure, as I know from my personal experience in my own Constituency. Considering the work that is being done by Scottish Borders Council, I think that there is light here and progress to be made. That will be helpful, as we must ensure that a robust analysis is carried out. I hope that, following the feedback that it has received, Scottish Borders Council can move very quickly to making the appointment.

We will now have a supplementary from the aforementioned Rachael Hamilton.

I thank the Cabinet secretary and my colleague Christine Grahame for their collegiate approach to meeting representatives of the Campaign for Borders Rail.

Which key metrics will be used to demonstrate value and to inform a business case to extend the Borders railway through towns such as Hawick and Newcastleton? How will the findings of the Scottish Government’s strategic transport projects review 2 influence the ultimate outcome of the study?

The STPR2 findings were perhaps not necessarily as supportive as those who are campaigning would have wished. However, we have to acknowledge the desire in the Borderlands growth deal to ensure that the opportunity is given. As we know, the environmental, economic and social aspects are really important in all the different and varying projects that are presented to the Government and campaigned for. What struck me in my conversations at that meeting was the importance of connectivity and the ability for young people, in particular, to feel connected not only to their own community but to elsewhere. The balance of social, economic, environmental and other value-for-money factors comes into play when we are considering the Borders rail project and other projects that members have consistently raised with me.