EARL/S2/06/4/A

EDINBURGH AIRPORT RAILWAY LINK BILL COMMITTEE

AGENDA

4th Meeting, 2006 (Session 2)

Tuesday 13 June 2006

The Committee will meet at 10.00 am in Committee Room 6

1. Oral evidence on the general principles of the Bill: The Committee will take evidence from––

Panel 1

Neil Renilson, Chief Executive, and Bill Campbell, Operations Director, Transport ;

Andrew Mellors, Deputy Managing Director and Steve Montgomery, Operations and Safety Director, First ScotRail.

Panel 2

Graeme Malcolm, Transportation Manager and Wendy McCorriston, Planning Officer, West Lothian Council;

Keith Rimmer, Head of Transport, City Development Department, The City of Edinburgh Council.

Panel 3

Peter Spinney, Scottish Chairman and Bruce Young, Lothian Co-ordinator, Association of British Drivers.

Panel 4

Tom Hart, Vice President, Scottish Association for Public Transport (SAPT);

Colin Howden, Director and David Spaven, Chair, TRANSform Scotland.

Panel 5

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John David Ede, Householder

2. Edinburgh Bill (in private): The Committee will consider the oral evidence taken at agenda item 1.

3. Oral evidence on the general principles of the Bill: The Committee will take evidence from––

Panel 6

Promoter witnesses––

Susan Clark, Project Director, tie Ltd

Paul McCartney, Associate Economist, Halcrow

Trond Haugen, Transportation Manager, Fife Council and Chair of SESTRAN Rail Group

John Inman, Strategy Manager (Planning), City of Edinburgh Council

Marwan AL-Azzawi, Principal Transport Planner, Scott Wilson Railways

Gary Coutts, Railway Engineering Manager, Scott Wilson Railways

Alan Somerville, Commercial Manager (Heavy Rail), tie Ltd.

Jane Sutherland Clerk to the Rail Link Bill Committee 85209 Room T2.60 EH99 1EP [email protected]

EARL/S2/06/4/A

The following papers are attached for this meeting—

Agenda item 1

Written evidence from Virgin Trains, Transport Edinburgh Ltd and EARL/S2/06/3/1 First ScotRail and additional written evidence from Scottish Association for Public Transport (SAPT) in advance of providing oral evidence

In addition to the above documents, the following documents whilst not being committee papers, will be relevant to the meeting’s proceedings––

Agenda item 1

First Scotrail written evidence EA(P)26 West Lothian Council written evidence EA(P)10 The City of Edinburgh Council written evidence EA(P)05 Association of British Drivers written evidence EA(P)13 Scottish Association for Public Transport (SAPT) written evidence EA(P)03 TRANSform Scotland written evidence EA(P)19 John David Ede Objection No. 10

All objections can be found using this weblink: http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/committees/edinburghAirLinkBill/inquiries /ea-objections.htm

All Preliminary Stage written evidence can be found using this weblink: http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/committees/edinburghAirLinkBill/inquiries /ea-written-evid.htm

All Preliminary Stage written evidence from the promoter (tie Ltd) can be found using this weblink: http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/committees/edinburghAirLinkBill/inquiries /ea-prom-written-evid.htm

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EDINBURGH AIRPORT RAIL LINK BILL COMMITTEE

Written Evidence received from Virgin Trains, Transport Edinburgh Ltd, First ScotRail and addition written evidence from Scottish Association for Public Transport (SAPT)

Background

1. At its meeting on 23 May 2006, the Committee agreed a timetable for its consideration of the Bill at Preliminary Stage, which included those witnesses from whom it would like to take oral and additional written evidence.

2. The Committee agreed to write to Virgin Trains to invite them to give written evidence on the operational attractiveness of Virgin Trains using the Edinburgh Airport Rail Link.

3. Written evidence has been received from Virgin Trains and this is attached in Annexe A.

4. The Committee also agreed to invite Transport Edinburgh Ltd and First ScotRail to give oral evidence at the meeting to be held on 13 June 2006 and to invite them to provide written evidence.

5. Written evidence has been received from Transport Edinburgh Ltd and this is attached in Annexe B.

6. Written evidence has been received from First ScotRail and this is attached at Annexe C.

7. The Scottish Association for Public Transport have submitted additional written evidence in advance of providing oral evidence and this is attached at Annexe D.

Private Bills Unit June 2006

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Annexe A

The Scottish Parliament

Edinburgh Airport Rail Link (EARL) Bill Committee

The Response of Virgin Trains

1. The invitation to respond to the committee is welcomed by Virgin Trains. 2. Virgin Trains is the trading name for the two cross-border passenger franchises operated by Virgin Rail Group, which is jointly owned by Virgin (51 per cent) and Perth-based Stagecoach Group (49 per cent). Virgin CrossCountry trains run on the Edinburgh/ section of the East Coast Main Line past Edinburgh Airport, on Aberdeen/Edinburgh, Aberdeen/Birmingham, Dundee-Bournemouth, Dundee-Birmingham and Penzance-Dundee routes. In addition to long-distance customers, these trains also cater for Dundee and Fife commuters who travel daily to and from work in Edinburgh. There are also Virgin CrossCountry trains calling at Haymarket on services between Edinburgh and English destinations via Carlisle, and hourly services from Edinburgh Waverley to Birmingham and beyond which operate over the East Coast Main Line between Edinburgh and York. Virgin West Coast operates between Glasgow Central and London Euston on the West Coast Main Line, plus one train a day in each direction between Edinburgh Waverley, Haymarket and London Euston. 3. The CrossCountry franchise, which is Great Britain’s only truly national passenger train operation, is to be re-mapped by the (DfT), who will invite tenders for a new CrossCountry franchise as part of restructuring to reduce four franchises through the English Midlands to three from November 2007. The former Strategic Rail Authority thinned out services north of Edinburgh on the current CrossCountry franchise in 2003, after a previous increase, but supported the maintenance of enhanced frequencies between Edinburgh, Birmingham and beyond. The West Coast franchise continues until 2012. Both franchises have been run by Virgin Trains since 1997. 4. Virgin Trains invested more than £1 billion in a fleet of high-speed Voyager diesel trains to transform CrossCountry, which now caters for more than 20 million passenger journeys a year, compared to 10.6 million in 1994/95. Scotland has played a significant part in this success, thanks to a substantial increase in the number of cross-border trains south of Edinburgh and Glasgow, and recruitment of high-calibre staff in Edinburgh and elsewhere to join the excellent people who chose to become part of the CrossCountry team before privatisation. Their dedication to continuing to improve service standards and win more customers will be supported by Virgin in a strong bid to secure the new franchise. CrossCountry has the potential for further growth, and that could include operation via a new station at Edinburgh Airport if the opportunity to do that is included in the new CrossCountry franchise. Scottish Ministers will have a say on the Scottish elements of the new franchise but final specification and invitation

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to tender will come from the DfT. A possible model is the current First ScotRail franchise which includes provision for potential services on new tracks serving new or reopened stations to be introduced during the period of operation of the franchise. 5. The 44 “Super Voyagers” in the Voyager fleet can tilt to reduce journey times by running at higher speeds than conventional trains on curvaceous routes equipped for tilt – so far only the West Coast Main Line and a pilot stretch between Oxford and Banbury on the Thames Valley line. These trains, together with the 34 non-tilt Voyagers, have the technical capability to serve the proposed new airport station. They produce clean enough emissions to meet required standards and have sufficient power to accelerate rapidly, even up the gradients out of the planned sub-surface station, to minimise the amount of time necessary to divert through the airport. Alternatively, such trains could be used on fast services to Dundee and Aberdeen bypassing the airport while other services call at the airport instead. (It is known that new rolling stock with greater acceleration than the current diesels used on internal Scottish services is being considered, partly to help offset the marginal extra time required to serve the airport station.) 6. The significance of the EARL scheme is that it would convert Edinburgh Airport into Scotland’s Airport, by offering direct trains from and to all of Scotland’s cities and several other important towns. This would benefit tourism, making much of Scotland readily accessible in an environmentally friendly and sustainable manner to visitors who fly in from overseas. Economic benefits can be expected to spread as far as the Highlands as a result of easier access for other international business in addition to tourism. 7. If the Edinburgh Airport Rail Link merely encouraged more people to fly between Scotland and London and Birmingham, that would be counter- productive to the environmental case. As cross-border train operators, we clearly prefer to see people catching a train in Edinburgh to go all the way to English destinations, rather than getting off the train to catch a plane. However, we accept that there is a positive prospect that linking Edinburgh Airport more easily with much of the rest of Scotland by rail would be an incentive for greater concentration of international flights at this airport due to its enlarged catchment. This may reduce the need for interlining via Heathrow and other English airports, thus supplementing the benefits of future cross-border rail improvements in reducing demand for flights between Scotland and London. In this way, EARL has the potential to contribute towards reductions in emissions that affect climate change. 8. The proposed link has other attractions besides connecting more of Scotland to Edinburgh Airport. It would offer shorter journey times between Fife and Central and Western Scotland, notably Falkirk and Glasgow, with one change of train at the airport instead of Haymarket. For rail passengers from and to the north and west accessing employment, shopping and residential areas on the west side of Edinburgh, the airport station would offer quicker journeys by connecting there instead of Haymarket with buses, taxis, cycles and the proposed Edinburgh project. (The tram scheme would complement, not compete with, the airport rail link by providing travel for a wide range of local journeys.)

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9. The EARL project, constructing loop lines to connect the Edinburgh/Glasgow and Edinburgh/Forth Bridge routes with an airport station through new tunnels, poses significant technical challenges but these have been carefully assessed by the promoters who are confident that it can be achieved successfully. In railway operational terms, the plan makes good sense. 10. The proposed train service pattern is logical, including half of the Edinburgh/Glasgow Queen Street service running via the airport and calling at Falkirk High and Croy while Linlithgow, Polmont, Falkirk Grahamston, Camelon, Larbert, Stirling, Bridge of Allan and Dunblane would be served by all of the half-hourly Edinburgh/Dunblane services, with other trains providing frequent links across the Forth Bridge. These trains would be operated by First ScotRail, but there is the potential for cross-border operators to provide supplementary travel capacity for cities north of the Forth. It is worth noting that under Virgin’s stewardship, CrossCountry has increased the number of trains calling at Lockerbie and, in co-operation with GNER, has added Dunbar to the CrossCountry network – potentially such trains could be used in future to link Edinburgh Airport with Lockerbie, a railhead for Dumfries & Galloway, and Dunbar, an increasingly important East Lothian centre, in addition to other places already served by Virgin CrossCountry on routes to and through Edinburgh, including Berwick, Alnmouth for Alnwick, Morpeth, Newcastle, Carlisle and stations in the Lake District. Consideration could also be given to including future First ScotRail services on a reopened Borders rail link among trains routed to Edinburgh Airport, as this, coupled with Virgin CrossCountry services for Lockerbie and Dunbar, could reduce demand for car travel via the often congested . 11. Virgin Trains had concerns that the future CrossCountry franchise might be adversely affected financially if Network Change rules governing arrangements for infrastructure engineering work were not followed during the installation of new junctions between existing tracks and the airport link. However, we have received reassurances on this from tie ltd, the link’s promoters, and therefore have not lodged any objection to the EARL Bill.

Virgin Trains June 2006

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Annexe B

WRITTEN SUBMISSION BY: Neil Renilson, Chief Executive of Transport Edinburgh Limited

EDINBURGH AIRPORT RAIL LINK

Transport Edinburgh is a company wholly owned by the City of Edinburgh Council. Its primary purpose is to deliver integration of the existing plc operations in the Greater Edinburgh area and the operations of the forthcoming Edinburgh .

Lothian Buses plc is 91% owned by the City of Edinburgh Council, and will be wholly owned by the City of Edinburgh Council. Thus, Transport Edinburgh will be able to deliver a level of tram / bus integration not achieved in many other cities where trams have been recently introduced, and where the bus and tram elements of the public transport service were under different ownership.

It is also an important objective of Transport Edinburgh Limited to achieve the maximum degree of integration on its bus and tram operations with those of other “third-party” operators, e.g. FirstBus, Stagecoach, ScotRail, etc., although clearly, as these third-party operators are independently owned, any integration achieved has to be achieved by mutual agreement and, in all cases, has to be cognisant of, and comply with, the requirements of competition legislation.

Turning specifically to the Edinburgh Airport Rail Link, Transport Edinburgh is fully supportive of the proposals. Transport Edinburgh recognises the immense strategic importance to Scotland as a whole of linking Edinburgh Airport directly into the Scottish rail network.

Edinburgh Airport is fortuitously located in the middle of a triangle of railways, which means that, by the construction of some relatively short (although, due to tunnelling requirements, relatively expensive) sections of rail line, Edinburgh Airport can be linked into the Scottish rail network in such a manner that every centre of population in Scotland of 40,000 people or more, except for Paisley, Kilmarnock and Ayr, is provided with a direct “no change” rail link to Edinburgh Airport.

I am advised that, with EARL, 62 rail stations across Scotland are planned to have direct train services stopping at Edinburgh Airport, and that 64% of the population of Scotland lives within 2 miles of these 62 stations.

Due to the fortuitous position of Edinburgh Airport, construction of the railway lines proposed in the EARL project could result in through train services to Edinburgh Airport from Inverness, Perth, Aberdeen, Dundee, Kirkcaldy, Dunfermline, Falkirk, Glasgow and Edinburgh being possible. Thus, construction of EARL gives the potential for passengers to access Edinburgh Airport by direct train services from all major centres of population in Scotland

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(bar the three exceptions listed above) and also possibly from locations in north-east England served by London – Aberdeen trains, including Berwick- upon-Tweed, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Darlington, etc.

An additional benefit will be to make rail journeys between Fife and Glasgow / the West quicker and more direct, as interchange between trains at Edinburgh Airport will shorten the journey, compared to the present situation, where interchange takes place at Haymarket. EARL will also open up opportunities for rail / tram interchange at Edinburgh Airport.

Transport Edinburgh believes the Edinburgh Airport Rail Link project offers huge potential benefits to Scotland as a whole, and Edinburgh Airport in particular, in terms of improving its accessibility by public transport beyond all recognition from the current position.

There has been concern expressed in some quarters about the superficially apparent duplication of rail links to Edinburgh Airport, with current plans to construct both a tram link from Edinburgh city centre to the Airport and a rail link from Edinburgh city centre to the Airport – colloquially “You wait 40 years for a rail link to the Airport, then 2 come along together!”

Transport Edinburgh most certainly does not subscribe to this view. It believes the tram link and rail link are aimed at very largely different markets and fulfil different needs. As mentioned above, Edinburgh Airport Rail Link is not primarily about providing a rail link from Edinburgh to Edinburgh Airport. It is about linking Edinburgh Airport with virtually the whole of Scotland’s rail network, whereas the tram project is primarily focused on providing local links from within Edinburgh and its suburbs to the Airport. The tram will provide new public transport opportunities, giving through links from other points served by the tramway, e.g. and the rapidly developing business and commerce area, plus the new HQ at Gogarburn, to Edinburgh Airport – not facilities that will be offered by EARL.

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Annexe C WRITTEN EVIDENCE FROM FIRST SCOTRAIL

First ScotRail throughout the development of the Edinburgh Airport Rail Link (EARL) have shown support and contributed through consultation and discussion to the development of the Scheme. Mary Dickson, Managing Director of First ScotRail is a member of the Earl Project Board.

Edinburgh is one of the largest European capital cities by population without an airport rail link. The construction and operation of a rail link will allow direct train services to operate between Edinburgh Airport, Aberdeen, Dunfermline, Dunblane, Dundee, Glasgow, Inverness, Perth, Stirling and Edinburgh itself. We believe the scheme will have a very positive effect on the 'connectivity' in terms of tourism and growth.

First ScotRail operates 95% of passenger services in Scotland and holds the current franchise until 2011, with a possible three year extension yet to be determined by the Scottish Executive's agency, Transport Scotland. We have a responsibility to not only drive continued performance improvements throughout the existing network, working closely with Network Rail, but also to support schemes that endeavour to stimulate long term growth, increase employment opportunities, attract new business to regions, and stimulate tourism.

As a supporter of this scheme, we have a responsibility to advise the promoter of operational issues that may influence certain decision making. A key issue in this regard is the need to ensure that both new and existing infrastructure and rolling stock is adequate to support the planning and delivery of a robust and resilient timetable as well as the provision of sufficient capacity and configuration for the anticipated passenger growth. Once the final timetable has been set and rolling stock and maintenance and stabling strategy has been determined a procurement process will need to be undertaken. First ScotRail must then ensure a smooth transition to the new service in terms of staffing levels, staff training, fares and customer communication.

Successful delivery of the EARL project will confirm the Scottish Executive's commitment to delivering a national transport strategy that not only drives sustainable economic growth but also further reinforces the importance of a reliable and progressive rail network for Scotland.

Mary Dickson Managing Director

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Annexe D

SAPT Opening Statement to EARL Bill Committee

SAPT strongly supports rail connections to Scotland's main airports, preferably with through services to a range of destinations as in the EARL plans. Most major airports in England, and in European capital cities, have rail links as part of modern and accessible transport networks.

However, we are concerned that the high capital cost of the EARL scheme and added operational costs will put pressure on the Scottish Executive transport budget and increase the risk of some transport projects being delayed or cancelled.

SAPT therefore questions the need for two separate railway lines from Haymarket to the Airport, one via / , and one vie Edinburgh Park/ Roddinglaw. After analysis of the rail timetable, we suggested to tie that it may be possible to route all Airport trains via South Gyle, doing away with the need for a substantial part of the new infrastructure including the proposed Roddinglaw and Junctions and connecting track.

The SAPT suggestion was referred by tie to AEA Technology who have modelled the full EARL train service via South Gyle and Gogar Junction, and have confirmed that this is feasible with no significant impact on reliability.

tie have claimed that the SAPT suggestion would have two substantial negative commercial consequences:

1. There would be no trains between Edinburgh Park and the Airport. SAPT Response, Tram Line 2 will provide a frequent service from the Airport to a range of stops serving existing and proposed development including Edinburgh Park

2. The half-hourly train service between Edinburgh and Stirling/ Dunblane would lose income as it would no longer serve Edinburgh Park. SAPT Response a peak service could still be provided on the route via Edinburgh Park and Newbridge while Tram Route 2 will allow passengers to access Dunblane trains at the Airport (or at Gogar if this option is adopted)

While the full tie scheme offers marginal advantages to a minority of passengers and some added flexibility in capacity, it involves higher capital costs and operational difficulties than the simpler SAPT scheme. In strategic terms, we question whether the larger scheme can be afforded within a Scottish Executive transport capital budget believed to be around £1.6 billion over the next five years and accepted by the Transport Minister Tavish Scott as coming under increasing pressure (Speech to Dunblane Conference on National Transport Strategy, 30 May, 2006). Scottish Association for Public Transport 8 June 2006

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