National Transport Strategy
Protecting our climate and improving lives.
Our vision is for a sustainable, inclusive, safe and accessible transport system helping deliver a healthier, fairer and more prosperous Scotland for communities, businesses and visitors.
Our Vision
Our National Transport Strategy sets out our vision for Scotland’s transport system for the next 20 years. The vision is underpinned by four interconnected priorities: Reduces Inequalities, Takes Climate Action, Helps Deliver Inclusive Economic Growth and Improves our Health and Wellbeing.
The Strategy signals the future direction of transport and provides the context within which decisions, in and beyond government, continue to be made. The Strategy does not identify or present specific projects, schemes, initiatives or interventions, but sets out the strategic framework within which future decisions on investment will be made.
This Strategy is for all of Scotland, recognising the different needs of our cities, towns, remote and rural areas and islands. It considers why we travel and how those trips are made, by walking, wheeling, cycling, and travelling by bus, train, ferry, car, lorry and aeroplane.
We all need to work together across boundaries to add value and ensure its success, involving all people in our society in decision making and empowering businesses and communities to play a vital part in the delivery process. We all also need to take responsibility for our actions, ensuring that our travel choices make a positive contribution to delivering the Strategy over the next 20 years.
At the heart of the NTS is the recognition that we need to make a step-change in behaviour and provide attractive, affordable, accessible and sustainable travel options.
Third Delivery Plan: 2023 to 2024 and Report to Parliament
The third NTS Delivery Plan, published on 8 December 2023, highlights over 70 actions being taken across the Scottish Government to deliver the Strategy’s vision, priorities and outcomes in 2023 and what actions will be undertaken over the coming year.
Our first Report to Parliament was published on the same date, setting out the progress made in the three years since the Strategy was published and the steps taken to keep it under review. The publication of the Report fulfils our commitment in the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019.
Second Delivery Plan: 2022 to 2023
Two years since the publication of our National Transport Strategy (NTS) and our first NTS Delivery Plan, we continue to make progress across the Scottish Government in delivering on our vision and strategic priorities.
The second NTS Delivery Plan, published on 8 June 2022, sets out the actions being taken across the Scottish Government to deliver our vision, priorities and outcomes from 2022 to 2023.
Our aim is to ensure access to affordable, accessible and sustainable transport across the country. We know that the challenges ahead are significant, and that reducing private car use and transitioning to more walking, wheeling or cycling for day-to-day journeys will pose greater challenges for some. However, our actions aim to seize on the opportunities offered as we journey to net-zero and support the necessary changes to provide for safer, healthier and more enjoyable streets, businesses, neighbourhoods and journeys.
- Read more on the publication of the second Delivery Plan
First Delivery Plan: 2020 to 2022
The first NTS Delivery Plan, published on 17 December 2020, set out the actions being taken across the Scottish Government to achieve the NTS vision, priorities and outcomes for 2020 to 2022.
The Plan was published amidst the uncertainty surrounding the longer term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, however our focus remained on the priorities underpinning our vision, to deliver a transport system that reduces inequality, that takes climate action, helps deliver inclusive economic growth, and improves our health and wellbeing.
We focused this first Delivery Plan on addressing the impacts of COVID-19 as a core component of taking forward our longer-term strategy.
Evaluating our Progress
The key to understanding and evaluating the progress of the NTS over the short, medium and long term is to routinely monitor and report on progress towards its outcomes.
To support this outcome, we published our detailed strategy for Monitoring and Evaluating the impacts of the NTS in August 2021. We continue to monitor and evaluate a number of indicators that span the four primary goals of the strategy.
The indicators range from transport emissions to the proportion of short journeys made by active travel to transport related casualties, among many others. Where possible, these indicators are broken down and analysed by demographic and geographic variables to demonstrate how experiences of transport vary across society and to ensure that interventions are measured in terms of their impact on all people in Scotland.
The first publication in this series is the Monitoring and Evaluation baseline report, published on 8 June 2022. This collates and summarises the data underpinning the primary and secondary indicators (where data is available) to establish a baseline against which progress can be monitored. In most cases, this involves an analysis of data from 2019 to provide a suitable ‘pre-pandemic’ baseline.
Engagement and Consultation
Successful delivery of our vision cannot be achieved through Government alone. The NTS and its Delivery Plans draw on the latest evidence and were developed using a collaborative approach involving a wide range of partners. We intend to continue this positive engagement with a wide range of individuals, businesses and third sector organisations.
A consultation on the draft Strategy was published on 5 February 2020, with views invited from across Scotland. The responses played a key role in informing the content of the Strategy.
NTS Delivery Board
The NTS Delivery Board is co-chaired by Cabinet Secretary for Transport Fiona Hyslop MSP and Councillor Gail Macgregor from the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (CoSLA). It brings together senior representatives across the transport sector to be accountable for the successful delivery of NTS.
This includes Regional Transport Partnerships, which produce Regional Transport Strategies aligned with NTS and Local Authorities.
Board Member Organisations
- Fiona Hyslop MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Transport (Co-Chair)
- Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (CoSLA) (Co-Chair)
- Regional Transport Partnerships (Lead Officer Member): SPT
- Society of Local Authority Chief Executives and Senior Managers (SOLACE)
- Society of Chief Officers of Transportation in Scotland (SCOTS)
- Association of Transport Co-ordinating Officers (ATCO)
NTS Business Group
The purpose of the Business Group is to share experiences and expertise and to highlight opportunities and challenges, supporting the delivery of the four NTS priorities where possible, but particularly to help to deliver inclusive economic growth.
The Business Group insights are shared with the NTS Delivery Board and across the organisation where updates are provided and recommendations for future policy development are considered and taken forward.
The Business Group includes representatives from transport businesses and their representative organisations, including:
- Airport Operators Association (AOA)
- British Ports Association
- Chambers of Commerce
- Confederation of Passenger Transport (CPT)
- Logistics UK
- Rail Freight Group
- Road Haulage Association
- Scottish Council for Development and Industry (SCDI)
- Scottish Engineering
- Scottish Enterprise
- Technology Scotland
- VisitScotland
- Transport Scotland
NTS Peoples' Panel
The NTS Peoples’ Panel brought together individuals from across Scotland and supported the delivery of the second National Transport Strategy (NTS). The Panel was set up to consider issues highlighted in the NTS under its four key priorities.
The NTS Peoples’ Panel met, from October 2021 to January 2022, to discuss the four key priorities and to strengthen our evidence base and identify possible policy initiatives. All outcomes from the Peoples’ Panel were pulled together and used to inform the Forum sessions and the NTS Delivery Board.