WEST LOTHIAN from Uphall Daytime Evening Sunday to Broxburn 4 1 2 to Livingston 4 1 2 to St John’S Hospital 4 1 2

Airdrie Bathgate Railway and Linked Improvements Bill Committee Official Report 18 September 2006 The following question was asked by Jeremy Purvis at the A2B oral evidence meeting 18 September 2006. Jeremy Purvis: You can appreciate that most of the evidence that we have received has raised concerns about connections. We have seen what is proposed in the costings for the bill with regard to the £1 million but there is no mechanism for delivering the services. You have highlighted some of the difficulties that there might be. However, as far as I understand it, that is an annual sum rather than a start-up grant. It would be used to configure permanent services for the railway. Can you come back to us with details of how you would configure the bus services to serve the railway in the form that is proposed by the bill, which is to say without the stations at Plains and Blackridge? You could perhaps include your thoughts on having a quality contract or partnership that, as Councillor Imrie of SESTRAN said, would provide a dedicated service. Roy Mitchell: I am doing preparatory work on that subject and can forward it to the committee. WLC Reply EXISTING RAIL /BUS CONNECTIONS- WEST LOTHIAN From Uphall Daytime Evening Sunday To Broxburn 4 1 2 To Livingston 4 1 2 To St John’s Hospital 4 1 2 From Livingston North * To Bathgate 7 3 2 To Kirkton Campus 2 0 0 To Livingston Centre 9 3 2 To St John’s Hospital 9 3 2 From Bathgate To Addiewell 2 1 1 Armadale 10 3 3 Blackridge 3 1 1 Boghall 8 1 1 Blackburn 7 2 2 Fauldhouse 3 1 1 Harthill 2 1 0 Torphichen 1 0.5 0.5 Westfield 1 1 1 Whitburn 4 1 1 * some buses start at Deans High School. Cost of Existing Services The annual cost of present tendered services offering rail connections (full cost of service) Service Days & Times Cost £000s p.a. Bathgate- Armadale-Whitburn- Fauldhouse Eves / Sun 66 Bathgate- Armadale- Westfield Falkirk Eves / Sun 19 Craigshill- Deans- Liv North- Kirkton Mon – Fri (daytime) 84 Kirkton- Livingston- St John;s – Uphall Mon – Sat 122 Station- Broxburn-Winchburgh- South Queensferry Bathgate- Torphichen- Linlithgow- Daily 162 Broxburn/South Queensferry Boghall-Bathgate- Armadale- Blackridge- Eve / Sun 37 Harthill Bathgate- Blackburn- Addiewell Eve / Sat / Sun 84 Edinburgh- Broxburn- Uphall stn- Eve / Early Morning 84 Livingston-SJh-Liv N-Bathgate Total Cost £658k p.a. Cost of Additional Bus Services for existing stations for the service proposed in the Bill With a more frequent rail service we would look to upgrade the link from Livingston North (or possibly use Uphall) to St John’s, Livingston and Kirkton Campus which would cost at least £84000 and from Bathgate- Addiewell at a similar cost Additional Cost for Buses to serve Existing Stations = £168k New Station at Armadale There are existing commercial services linking the Armadale station site with Bathgate, Whitburn and Fauldhouse. These are presently 3 an hour daytime but only one an hour on an evening which is subsidised by West Lothian Council. There are no services from west of Whitburn (Greenrigg, Harthill,) or Blackridge to the station. The service from Westfield and the north of Armadale is very restricted to one an hour which serves Bathville The Bill proposes that there will be two trains per hour in each direction at Armadale. In order to ensure that these are met, I would proposes that we introduce a circular route covering Blackridge, Armadale, Armadale Station, Whitburn, Greenrigg, Harthill and back to Blackridge. This would operate half hourly in each direction and require 4 buses to operate. The easy-access, low-floor buses would be timetabled to meet every train. The operational cost of this service is estimated to be £984,000. Fare box revenue estimated to be £264,000 should be deducted. The net cost of this service is estimated to be £720,000 a year. Summary The existing bus services do not adequately cover the rail service proposed in the Bill. The requirements cannot be provided by commercial services. The cost of providing the extra services is estimated to be £888,000 in addition to the council’s existing spend of £658,000 at 2006 prices. .

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