Business Comment JUNE/JULY2018 Special Report: Transport and Infrastructure Humza Yousaf MSP, Minister for Transport and the Islands - The future for Transport in Scotland looks bright Gordon Dewar on ambitious plans for Edinburgh Airport and the impact of Air Passenger Duty 17-1106_Fulcrum_Business Scotland advert_AW_OL.indd 1 06/11/2017 14:36 17-1106_Fulcrum_Business Scotland advert_AW_OL.indd 1 06/11/2017 14:36 CONTENTS 19 When will Edinburgh see the first fully automated vehicles on its streets? 38 Transformation plans Transport for Edinburgh and for Granton Campus Serco sign agreement for new innovative cycle hire scheme 10 for City of Edinburgh Contents and introduction 03 The journey continues for First Scotland Transport and Infrastructure East as they are shortlisted for four awards 04 Openreach invests £400,000 to train Welcome to Business Comment, your by Scotland’s high level of Air Passenger magazine, and in this issue we look at the Duty should serve as a stark warning to our Scotland’s digital engineers of the future 05 importance of our transport infrastructure. politicians. Turning a disposable nightmare As businesses, we appreciate the vital role Alex Hynes, Managing Director at the ScotRail into a circular economy dream 07 played by transport in our commercial lives – Alliance, is another with a major role to play Member Perspective 09 from getting people to and from their place of and he is determined that Edinburgh is at work, linking the supply chain, right through the heart of his own plans to deliver the best New Members 10 to providing our city with global connectivity. railway network Scotland has enjoyed, with New innovative cycle hire scheme With improved transport comes improved significant upgrading work underway. However, for City of Edinburgh 10 opportunity, greater potential, more sustainable he stresses that the plans don’t stop at the and inclusive growth. network, with Waverley Station and its role as Developing the Young Workforce 12 a major gateway and transport hub for the At Edinburgh Chamber, we are committed Get Going 13 Capital very much to the fore in his thinking to working with all of our stakeholders and also. Business Support 14|17 partners to ensure Scotland’s Capital benefits from the best possible transport infrastructure The magazine, as ever, reflects the diverse and Ask the Expert 19 – by road, rail, air and sea. innovative work of our members, and that is Top 10 Tips 20 illustrated by the new cycle hire deal struck by In the magazine the Scottish Government’s Transport for Edinburgh and Serco. Whats on at the Royal Highland Show 22 Minister for Transport and the Islands, Humza Yousaf, outlines the ambitious target held, Happy reading! Corporate View 24|25 to remove the need for new petrol and diesel Special Report: Transport and cars by 2032. On the way to delivering that, the Infrastructure 26|29 Government will need to continue to invest in our transport network, and the Minister points Training and Development 30|35 to investment in the new Queensferry Crossing, Partners In Enterprise 36|38 the M8 improvements, the M74 link, and also to £1 billion spent each year on our public 60 Seconds 39 transport system. Get with It 39 Edinburgh Airport’s Chief Executive Gordon Conferences and Events 40|43 Dewar brings us up to speed with the pace of Chamber Training change and progress at our major international 44|45 gateway, where the progress made there can Liz McAreavey Chamber International Update 46|47 best be described as spectacular. However, Chief Executive, Inspiring Connections & Gordon is far from complacent – and indeed Edinburgh Chamber his comments on the damage being wrought of Commerce Forthcoming Events 48|49 Edinburgh’s Newcomers 50 June/July 2018 BC 3 CHAMBER NEWS The journey continues for First Scotland East as they are shortlisted for four awards First Scotland East (FSE) have completed a remarkable turnaround in fortunes over the last 12 months after turning a loss-making business back into a successful operating company. To top it all off, they have now been shortlisted for four awards at the prestigious Scottish Transport Awards. The First Bus operating company, who have also provided an opportunity to link these such as Stirling and Falkirk with this same depots at Larbert, Bannockburn, Livingston, priorities to the Green Bus funding initiative approach of investment in services and and Balfron, have been on quite a journey since by encouraging the use of more LCV’s in technology. The company has recently selling off the Borders arm of the business Scotland. Leather seats, wood effect flooring, launched cashless payment methods in 2017. Now, thanks to some significant improvements to the vehicle specification across all vehicles such as contactless and investments in new greener vehicles along (stop/start technology), access to USB mTickets. There are also new digital ticketing with some worthwhile local partnerships and charging points and free Wi-Fi have been machines across all vehicles to complete investments in technology, the business is introduced to enhance the customers journey the entire First Bus Scottish network. These performing well and actually bucking national on the bus. In addition, all vehicles have innovations coupled with the availability of our trends for passenger growth across a number tracking devices fitted to assist with real time mTicketing and Journey Planner apps on all of their most popular routes. departure information for customers through a mobile devices means that access to the bus variety of channels including the updated First is easier than ever before for the customer. FSE have now been shortlisted for four Bus Journey Planner app. awards including Best Bus Operator, Frontline All in all, the future is looking bright as the Employee of the year (x2) and Best Bus Service The aim of this investment was not only to company continue their quest to make bus for the highly popular 27/28 service from enhance the experience of existing customers, the number one alternative travel option to the Livingston to Edinburgh. but to open up the bus to a new market car and one of the main solutions to the ever- of customers as a viable and hassle free increasing issue of congestion on our roads Following an investment in excess of £5 alternative to taking the car. – especially on the main corridors in and out of million, 19 ADL 400 double-deckers were Edinburgh. introduced, which not only reduced road FSE continues to go from strength to strength transport greenhouse gas emissions, but as they look to improve other locations 4 BC June/July 2018 CHAMBER NEWS Openreach invests £400,000 to train Scotland’s digital engineers of the future Openreach chief executive Clive Selley recently announced a £400,000 investment in a fibre training school for Scotland to educate a new generation of digital engineers. More than 4,000 people have applied for 400 would encounter during a typical working day new trainee engineering roles being created – from cabling to jointing and repairs, working in Scotland by the digital network business underground or overhead, up telephone poles as it gears up for a major rollout of ultrafast and installing new services inside customers’ broadband. homes. The new recruits will be among the first pupils Engineers who pass through the fibre training to pass through the new fibre training school, school will receive comprehensive training located within Openreach’s national training – from picking up a job and setting up their centre for Scotland in Livingston, with around working area safely to splicing together hair- 40 being hired to work directly on the rollout of breadth fibres or installing or repairing a line. Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) in Edinburgh. Around 1,700 trainees are expected to pass The Scottish capital will be the first city in through the doors in Livingston throughout Scotland to see widespread rollout of FTTP 2018/19, with numbers rising once work at speeds up to 1Gbps*. Work is under way this new training school will make sure they completes on the fibre school later this year. in parts of the city including Corstorphine have the skills they need to get the job done. More than 95 per cent of Scottish homes and Newington, with places like Murrayfield, can already access fibre broadband services, Abbeyhill and western Dalry expected to follow. “We’re confident that our investment in people and networks across Scotland have a big through commercial investment and Visiting the Livingston training centre, role to play in the country’s future economic Openreach’s Digital Scotland partnership with Keith Brown MSP, Cabinet Secretary for the success.” the public sector, with the vast majority able to Economy, Jobs and Fair Work, welcomed the attain speeds of 30Mbps+. latest investment on behalf of the Scottish During the visit, the Cabinet Secretary and CEO As well as being the first Scottish city, Government. visited the first of four new fibre classrooms at the centre – designed to provide a real- Edinburgh is one of only eight in the UK at the Mr Brown said: “Educating the next generation life setting for trainees complete with duct forefront of Openreach’s Fibre First programme, of digital engineers is absolutely vital to pipes, fibre cables and walls replicating inside which will see three million homes and ensuring we meet our digital ambitions. I and outside customers’ houses – and met businesses upgraded to ultrafast FTTP by the therefore welcome this investment from Openreach trainees. end of 2020. Openreach in their fibre training school, The capital joins places like Altnaharra in which will underpin the roll-out of high-speed During this year a residential street will be Sutherland and Innerleithen in the Scottish broadband to communities across Scotland.” replicated outside the centre to give recruits a safe, real-life environment to learn and practise Borders which already have some FTTP Clive Selley said: “When it comes to delivering every aspect of their work.