Scottish 2014 Rail Consultation

[tbtc]

It's all a bit academic as it depends on whether you class spending as "local" or "national".

For example, there was a thread where Welsh members were complaining that Crossrail was being classed as a "UK" project (as it benefits those from outside London who will use it too) rather than a "London" project. If it was a "London" project then there would presumably need to be some equivalent spending in Wales (and Scotland/ Norn Iron) to balance things up under the Barnett formula.

 

[clc]

The HLOS says spend in 2014/15 will be £639m - see 4.1:http://www.transportscotland.gov.uk/files/documents/rail/High_Level_Output_Specification_-_HLOS.pdf

But the rail budget for 2014/2015 is £836m - see table 13.08:http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2011/10/04153155/18

Does anyone know how the figures are reconciled?

 

[michael769]

AIUI HSLOS is funding for network rail alone.

Could the other figure include money going to the new ToC?

 

[clc]

AIUI HSLOS is funding for network rail alone.

Could the other figure include money going to the new ToC?

It says £530m of the £836m is for 'Rail Franchise', would some of that go to Network Rail or is that a daft question?
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From what I recall just about everywhere spend's more than it's taxed except London (& surrounds). London pays around twice what it spends. It's London that should be calling for devolution (well Boris has started to do that...).

Scotland spends more than it earns, same as England spends more than it earns. However, Scotland's deficit as a percentage of GDP is lower than the uk as a whole according to Treasury figures. Bear in mind Scotland is allocated a population share of uk Govt debt payments. So there is no subsidy from English tax payers, just a reliance on our share of uk Govt borrowing.
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Available on the Scottish Government site: http://www.transportscotland.gov.uk/files/documents/rail/High_Level_Output_Specification_-_HLOS.pdf

Amounts to £3.5b for CP5. Difficult to analyse without the DfT equivalent.
Basically funds EGIP and a rolling electrification programme of 100stkm thereafter (ie 30-ish miles per year of double track).

Very little meat and a lot of motherhood and apple pie (with sideswipes at Westminster).

There's also Aberdeen to Inverness and Highland Line improvements. However, I dont see how these projects, EGIP and say, 60 double track miles of electrification after EGIP would incur a spend of £3.3 billion over the 5 year period when they're planning to use RAB to spread the cost of over 30 years!

 

[michael769]

It says £530m of the £836m is for 'Rail Franchise', would some of that go to Network Rail or is that a daft question?

Not at all - the figures don't actually add up so I suspect there is some double counting going on. For example most stations are owned by network rail but are operated by Scotrail (excluding Glasgow Central and Edinburgh Waverly which NR own and operate), so funding for station works could easily be attributed to both Network Rail and Scotrail leading to double counting in the headline figures.

With figures like these you really need to see the itemised breakdowns to understand what is really going on. One can always rely on politicians to obfuscate and inflate expenditure, and the media to get it completely wrong!

There's also Aberdeen to Inverness and Highland Line improvements. However, I dont see how these projects, EGIP and say, 60 double track miles of electrification after EGIP would incur a spend of £3.3 billion over the 5 year period when they're planning to use RAB to spread the cost of over 30 years!

As well as the large headline projects there are a whole raft of minor capital projects in the pipeline - remodelling junctions, signalling/track replacement etc,etc - perhaps not large individually but they all add up! It is also not clear if the £3.5bn is for capital expenditure only or includes the operational expenditure over the same period. I suspect that it includes both. Does anyone know what the current subsidy to NR for operational expenditure is?