Performance Report

Performance Report

Performance Overview The performance overview section of this report provides an overview of Transport Scotland, its purpose and activities. The section also includes information on key risks and issues for the organisation and a high-level summary of performance in 2024-25.

Chief Executive’s Foreword

Alison Irvine

Interim Chief Executive
Transport Scotland

I am delighted, as Chief Executive of Transport Scotland, to present our 2024-25 Annual Report and Accounts.

Transport Scotland remains focused on the priorities underpinning the vision for Scotland to have a sustainable, inclusive, safe and accessible transport system, helping deliver a healthier, fairer and more prosperous Scotland for communities, businesses and visitors alike. Ensuring Scotland’s transport network remains effective, efficient and resilient in the face of climate change is central to our purpose. Every journey, whether for work, education, connecting with family and friends, accessing essential services or conducting business, relies on a transport system capable of meeting the evolving needs of our people and economy.

As we reflect on the last year, I am proud of the progress made and the pivotal role Transport Scotland continues to play in shaping the future of mobility across the country. The year marks another significant stride towards making our transport system more accessible, available and affordable. This is being achieved through the continued delivery of the National Transport Strategy’s four strategic priorities: Reduces Inequalities, Takes Climate Action, Helps Deliver Inclusive Economic Growth and Improves our Health and Wellbeing.

Notable improvements to the network include the reopening of Levenmouth railway in June 2024, reconnecting the communities of Levenmouth to the national rail network for the first time in over 50 years. Another key achievement this year, is the significant progress in our rail electrification work, including major milestones in the electrification of the East Kilbride line. These initiatives contribute to reducing carbon emissions while enhancing service quality and connectivity for our communities.

Accessibility is central to our work and the ongoing provision of free bus travel to all children and young people under 22, eligible disabled people and everyone aged 60 and over helps make transport more affordable and improves everyday mobility. More than 200 million free bus journeys have now been made by children and young people since the Scottish Government introduced free bus travel for under 22s three years ago. We also completed the ScotRail peak-fares removal pilot in September 2024.

Through the transformation of Active Travel, a new holistic delivery model has been developed with delivery partners, introducing a more direct relationship between Transport Scotland and Local Authorities (LAs), Regional Transport Partnerships (RTPs) and National Park Authorities (NPAs). In April 2024, the new People and Place programme was introduced, moving Transport Scotland away from the centralised national funding of services to a devolved, regional-based model. The new model is based on direct funding to the seven RTPs, with behaviour change projects aligned with regional and local transport strategies and responding to specific community needs.

A new tiered delivery model has been introduced for active travel infrastructure. Tier 1 of the Active Travel Infrastructure Fund (ATIF) is the bedrock of our transformed delivery system. All Local Authorities are provided this funding directly through their General Capital Grant and have the flexibility to use it as they see fit to meet active travel needs. The Tier 2 fund is a competitive funding mechanism established by the Scottish Government to support the development and delivery of active travel infrastructure across Scotland from concept to construction, and is open to LAs, RTPs, and NPAs. These funds support the ambitions outlined in Active Travel Strategies, Local Transport Strategies, and Regional Transport Strategies, reinforcing our commitment to regional working and sustained investment in active travel infrastructure.

The maintenance and renewal of Scotland’s infrastructure remains a priority, aimed at enhancing connectivity and ensuring safer, more reliable journeys across Scotland. In line with this commitment, we have met every milestone on the A9 dualling programme delivery plan, published and consulted on the A96 dualling review and made good progress on the medium and long-term solutions for the A83 Rest and Be Thankful.

There is continued focus on delivering a net-zero transport system and are actively collaborating with partners in both the public and private sectors to pursue innovative and sustainable solutions. In 2024, we published research exploring where charging and hydrogen fuelling will be needed for Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGVs) in the future and via ScotZEB 2 provided over £20 million in grant funding to Zenobe to deliver a transformational bus decarbonisation project. We also provided substantial funding to local authorities to stimulate private sector investment in the public electric vehicle (EV) charging network. This combined effort led us to reach our target for 6,000 public EV chargers in 2024, two years ahead of the planned schedule of 2026, marking a major achievement in reaching Scotland’s transition to a net zero transport system.

Across our Ferry network, we completed due diligence on the direct award of the Clyde and Hebrides Ferry Service (CHFS) 3 contract and the Cabinet Secretary for Transport announced on 8 May 2025 that Scottish ministers agreed a direct award to Calmac Ferries Limited. We took delivery of the Glen Sannox and secured agreement to proceed with the first phase of the Small Vessel Replacement Programme.

As Transport Scotland embarks on its twentieth year, I am proud of the progress we have made and as Chief Executive, I look forward to continuing to work alongside our talented team to deliver the vision for Transport across Scotland.

Our Vision and Purpose

Transport Scotland was formed on 1 January 2006 and is the national transport agency for Scotland and is part of the Scottish Government. Through the development of our transport projects and policies, we support our businesses, communities and services by connecting people across Scotland and beyond. Our purpose is to deliver the Scottish Government’s vision for transport, and we focus our activities on delivering, through our National Transport Strategy (NTS2), the transport driven National Outcomes within the National Performance Framework (NPF) and the Programme for Government (PfG).

The Strategy sets out the strategic framework within which future decisions on investment will be made and delivery plans are published which highlight the actions being taken by the Scottish Government to deliver on the four priorities.

Our Vision

We will have a sustainable, inclusive, safe and accessible transport system, helping deliver a healthier, fairer and more prosperous Scotland for communities, businesses and visitors alike.

Reduces inequalities

  • Will provide fair access to services we need
  • Will be easy to use for all
  • Will be affordable for all

Helps deliver inclusive economic growth

  • Will get people and goods where they need to get to
  • Will be reliable, efficient and high quality
  • Will use beneficial innovation

Take climate action

  • Will help deliver our net zero target
  • Will adapt to the effects of climate change
  • Will promote greener, cleaner choices

Improves our health and wellbeing

  • Will be safe and secure for all
  • Will enable us to make healthy travel choices
  • Will help make our communities great places to live

Our Organisation

The Chief Executive is the Accountable Officer for the agency, appointed by the Permanent Secretary to the Scottish Government. They are supported by a senior management team comprising eight Directors. Some oversee one or more mode of transport and/or policy areas which are in turn supported by a range of teams covering all aspects of business delivery within their respective areas. Others provide cross-cutting support across finance and corporate services as well as in prioritising future transport policy, climate and sustainability, strategy and investments. The Directors in place over the period of this report were:

  • Bill Reeve Director of Rail
  • Hugh Gillies Director of Roads
  • Kerry Twyman Director of Finance and Corporate Services
  • Lawrence Shackman Director of Major Projects
  • Alison Irvine Cheif Executive (Accountable Officer)
  • Bettina Sizeland Director of Bus, Accessibility and Active Travel
  • Morna Cannon (Interim) Director of Enviornment, Climate and Sustainability
  • Fiona Brown (Interim) Director of Transport Strategy and Analysis
  • *Chris Wilcock (Interim) Director of Ferries

*Roddy Macdonald left post as Director of Ferries on 28 February 2025 and Chris Wilcock joined post as Interim Director of Ferries on 12 March 2025.

Bus, Accessibility and Active Travel

Responsible for the Scottish Government’s policy relating to bus, active travel, smart and integrated ticketing, and accessible travel. It supports local authorities, delivery partners and bus operators to deliver sustainable, accessible local transport solutions and improve bus services. It promotes walking, cycling, and wheeling, operates the concessionary bus travel scheme for disabled, older, and young people, and works with operators to ensure all journeys on Scotland’s bus, rail, ferry, subway and tram networks can be ticketed or paid for using smart technologies.

Ferries

Delivering ferry connectivity for our island communities through designing, procuring and managing the Clyde and Hebrides and the Northern Isles Ferry Services (CHFS and NIFS) contracts. The directorate, working with a range of partners including Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited (CMAL), ferry operators, and port authorities, maintains and improves ferry connectivity through investment in vessels, port and harbours as set out in the Islands Connectivity Plan (ICP).

Finance and Corporate Services

Supports the operation and governance of Transport Scotland which includes core services and advice in areas such as finance, human resources, learning and development, information governance, IT, workplace, facilities, health and safety, secretariat, and communications. The Directorate plays a leading role on a range of corporate governance functions including risk management, the operation of the Audit and Risk Committee and corporate reporting requirements. It also has a sponsorship function looking after Scottish Ministers’ interests in David MacBrayne Limited, Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited, and Scottish Canals. Collectively, the team supports the business with technical advice and management accounting and reporting to drive best practice, compliance and value for money. Furthermore, it provides strategic advice and a coordination function to the Cabinet Secretary on Portfolio Finance.

Environment, Climate & Sustainability

Advises and supports Ministers to deliver a Just Transition from a fossil fuelled transport system to a zero-emission transport system supporting transport’s ability to improve our natural environment. This includes leading the Scottish Government’s mission to remove the need for new petrol and diesel cars and vans by 2030, delivering strategically coordinated investment in electric vehicle charging infrastructure including for large road vehicles, encouraging skills development to support future net zero needs, working with partners to improve air quality, working to ensure the transport system in Scotland is adapted to the impacts of climate change, and supporting biodiversity and landscape improvements through the transport system.

Major Projects

Delivery of design, development, procurement, and construction of major trunk roads and other infrastructure projects across Scotland, alongside leading and advising on procurement and contract management matters for Transport Scotland and maintaining our status as a Centre of Excellence for the delivery of major projects. The team is responsible for the delivery of large-scale infrastructure projects, such as road upgrades, expansions and bridge constructions through co-ordination with various stakeholders, including government agencies, local authorities, private contractors and design consultants to ensure project alignment and successful implementation.

Rail

Responsible for Scotland’s rail policy, delivering major projects alongside industry partners, promoting and investing in the development of sustainable rail freight, managing economic regulation of the railways, and monitoring and advising on the affordability of the rail programme. Rail Directorate also has sponsorship lead for and oversight of the services provided by Scotrail Trains Ltd and Caledonian Sleeper Ltd which are overseen by Scottish Government’s wholly owned and controlled arm’s length company Scottish Rail Holdings Ltd.

Roads

Responsible for the safe operation and maintenance of the Scottish trunk road network, roads policy, road safety. Including oversight of progress towards national casualty reduction targets, Intelligent Transport Systems and lighting, resilience, winter maintenance and transport planning of major events, roads and bridges design standards and air quality and the environment including environmental assessment, change adaptation and asset management.

Transport Strategy and Analysis

Responsible for setting the strategic direction of the agency, supported by evidence and analysis, including oversight of the delivery of the National Transport Strategy and the transport sector’s contribution to the Government’s statutory targets, priorities and missions. This includes climate change policy, supporting the organisations public transport fares, integration and modal shift, reducing car use in Scotland, air connectivity, and decarbonising aviation. We support the organisation with analytical services (such as statistics, transport appraisal, economics, modelling and evaluation) and support in transport infrastructure investment. We’re also responsible for the sponsorship of Highlands and Islands Airports Limited (HIAL), subsidising the Glasgow to Campbeltown, Tiree and Barra air services and for the operation of the Air Discount Scheme (ADS).

Our contribution to The National Performance Framework

Our organisational focus continues to be on how we will support, through our National Transport Strategy (NTS2), the transport-focused national outcomes within the current National Performance Framework (NPF) and the annual Programme for Government (PfG).

The PfG is steered by the longer-term vision in the NPF, and its aim is to set out the actions required to deliver the outcomes. Within this the Scottish Government is focusing its efforts and resources on the four key priorities: eradicating child poverty, growing the economy, tackling the climate emergency, and ensuring high quality and sustainable public services.

Our National Transport Strategy contributes to nine of the National Outcomes within the NPF, as well as all 17 of the Key United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. This information is mapped in the Strategy’s Monitoring and Evaluation document.

Performance Summary

This section is a summary of Transport Scotland’s performance against our 2024-25 business plan, which is aligned with the National Transport Strategy. For further detail on performance, see page 32, the Performance Analysis section.

Our national transport strategy

In our NTS, we have set out an ambitious and compelling vision for our transport system for the next twenty years. It seeks to protect our climate and improve the lives of the people of Scotland.

The NTS commits to collaborative working with wider partners in shaping our future transport system. Continued close partnership and collaboration with partners will be vital to successfully realising the strategy’s vision, priorities, and outcomes.

NTS2 has four priorities, each with three associated outcomes. It sets out a high-level framework to inform transport decision making. These priorities and outcomes, outlined below in the Performance Summary, form the heart of the Strategy and are the basis upon which we take decisions and evaluate the success of Scotland’s transport policies going forward.

In December 2023 we delivered our first National Transport Strategy: Report to Parliament which provides an overview of the continued commitment to the Strategy and, as detailed in the publication of our annual Delivery Plans, the actions being taken by the Scottish Government to deliver the vision and priorities for transport.

The National Outcomes will help us to achieve Our Purpose:

To focus on creating a more successful country with opportunities for all of Scotland to flourish through increased wellbeing and sustainable and inclusive economic growth.

National Transport Strategy – Contribution Story

We will have a sustainable, inclusive, safe and accessible transport system helping deliver healthier, fairer and more prosperous Scotland for communities, businesses and visitors.

Reduces Inequality

  • We will provide fair access to the services we need.
  • Will be easy to use for all.
  • Will be affordable for all.

Takes Climate Action

  • Helps deliver our net zero target.
  • Adapts to the effects of climate change.
  • Promotes greener, cleaner choices.

Helps Deliver Inclusive Economic Growth

  • Will get us where we need to get to.
  • Will be reliable, efficient and high quality.
  • Will use beneficial technology.

Improves Our Health and Wellbeing

  • Will enable us to make healthy travel choices.
  • Will help make our communities great places to live.
  • Will be safe and secure for all.

Key

National Outcomes in the National Performance Framework

  • Children and young people: We grow up loved, safe and respected so that we realise our full potential
  • Communities: We live in communities that are inclusive, empowered, resilient and safe
  • Culture: We are creative and our vibrant and diverse cultures are expressed and enjoyed widely
  • Economy: We have a globally competitive, entrepreneurial, inclusive and sustainable economy
  • Education: We are well educated, skilled and able to contribute to society
  • Environment: We value, enjoy, protect and enhance our environment Fair work and business: We have thriving and innovative businesses, with quality jobs and fair work for everyone
  • Health: We are healthy and active
  • Human rights: We respect, protect and fulfil human rights and live free from discrimination
  • International: We are open, connected and make a positive contribution internationally
  • Poverty: We tackle poverty by sharing opportunities, wealth and power more equally

UN Sustainable Development Goals

  • 1 No Poverty
  • 2 Zero Hunger
  • 3 Good Health and Wellbeing
  • 4 Quality Education
  • 5 Gender Equality
  • 6 Clean Water and Sanitation
  • 7 Affordable and Clean Energy
  • 8 Decent Work and Economic Growth
  • 9 Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
  • 10 Reduced Inequalities
  • 11 Sustainable Cities and Communities
  • 12 Responsible Consumption and Production
  • 13 Climate Action
  • 14 Life Below Water
  • 15 Life on Land
  • 16 Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
  • 17 Partnerships for the Goals
Key achievements

The NTS2 sets out our vision for Scotland’s transport system to 2040. We have made considerable progress towards delivering on the four NTS priorities over the past year, as projects are completed, and milestones are celebrated. Many of our activities continue to centre on maintaining and operating the transport system, which is essential for getting people and goods where they need to be, supporting access to employment, education and leisure activities.

NTS Priority 1: Reduces inequalities

We continue to tackle inequalities, improve accessibility and seek to improve affordability. Levenmouth railway was reopened, with an investment of over £116 million. Passenger services commenced on 2 June 2024, connecting the communities of Levenmouth to the national rail network for the first time in over 50 years, via two new fully accessible stations at Leven and Cameron Bridge. Over one kilometre of active travel bridges and routes connecting communities to the new stations are part of the programme, and Scottish Ministers committed £5 million to maximise the socio-economic benefits of the new rail link, which has been match funded by Fife Council.

Following the completion of the initial ScotRail peak-fares removal pilot in September 2024, we introduced a twelve-month discount on all ScotRail season tickets and the terms of the Flexipass product have been permanently amended to create a discount for those who travel less frequently. Subsequently, in May 2025 the permanent removal of peak fares from 1 September 2025 was announced to encourage more people to travel by train, reduce car journeys, and help existing peak time rail passengers with the cost of living.

We invested over £397 million to provide free bus travel for 2.3 million cardholders in Scotland, including all children and young people under 22, eligible disabled people and everyone aged 60 and over. The year saw 192 million journeys made which were free at the point of use, an increase of 6% on the previous year. These schemes are continuing to help people across Scotland cut costs for essential, every day and leisure travel, making sustainable travel a more attractive option and supporting our net zero ambitions.

We continue to invest in ferry services, vessels and infrastructue to maintain and improve connectivity and accessibility to our inhabited islands and peninsulas. The Clyde and Hebrides and Northern Isles ferry service contracts and the capital investment in new vessels and ports is essential to island communities and businesses, providing connection to and from resources and services.

NTS Priority 2: Takes climate action

Achieving Net Zero by 2045 remains a key focus and we will set out renewed actions and outcomes for Transport in the forthcoming draft Climate Change Plan, due Autumn 2025, supported by the just transition actions set out in the draft Transport Just Transition Plan which went out for public consultation in Spring 2025. In June 2025, we published jointly with COSLA a Renewed Policy Statement, reiterating our commitment to reducing our reliance on cars in a fair way. Since 1 June 2024, all four of Scotland’s largest cities have been fully enforcing Low Emission Zones, protecting public health and supporting climate action.

We have awarded substantial funding to local authorities to enable greater private investment in the public electric vehicle (EV) charging network. We already have one of the most comprehensive public charging networks of any part of the UK, which is encouraging people to switch to EVs. As a direct result of public funding and increasing private sector investment, Scotland has met its target for 6,000 public EV chargers two years ahead of the planned schedule of 2026. In December 2024, we published our draft Vision Implementation Plan identifying a route map to delivering approximately 24,000 additional public charge points by 2030, largely funded and delivered by the private sector. We have also published research exploring where charging and hydrogen fuelling will be needed for Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGVs) in the future.

East Kilbride electrification and enhancement works for Hairmyres rail station continued with £74.4 million invested in 2024-25 and electric services planned to begin December 2025. In addition, £44 million was spent in 2024-25 on the rolling programme to upgrade and reconfigure rail power supplies to support existing and future electrification, building on the 2 feeder stations delivered in previous years. 75% of passenger journeys on rail are now running on electrified lines.

Our Environment, Climate and Sustainability directorate supported a number of grant initiatives and loan schemes. This included the LEZ Support Fund, providing funding to support both low-income households and microbusinesses. 768 vehicles were scrapped, and 428 travel better measures have been funded. In addition, 94 taxis have been retrofitted to LEZ standards. During 2024-25 we funded loan applications across two EV loans schemes, the Used EV Domestic Loan and Switched-on Taxis Loan, supporting the purchase of 538 vehicles.

Via ScotZEB 2 we provided over £20 million in grant funding to Zenobe to deliver a transformational bus decarbonisation project. Consortium members have achieved 172 of a total of 252 vehicles delivered or on order, alongside the installation of 135 charge points so far, with more to come.

The third Scottish National Adaptation Plan (SNAP3) was published during Climate Week in September. The Plan sets out actions to build Scotland’s resilience to the impacts of climate change, including in relation to our transport system.

We set out our commitments supporting the target in the Scottish Government’s Climate Change Plan that 30% of the Government (CMAL) owned fleet should be low or zero emission vessels by 2032. These include delivery of seven electric vessels as part of the Small Vessel Replacement Programme Phase 1 from 2027, designing new major vessels with diesel-electric propulsion systems. In addition, we are seeing emissions reductions following the installation of shore power facilities at Port of Aberdeen through CMAL funded project in addition to those already in place in Orkney. We took delivery of and deployed the dual fuel MV Glen Sannox to support the Arran route. We also provided funding for Orkney Islands Councils two electric ferries.

NTS Priority 3: Improves our health and wellbeing

2024-25 saw the completion of major infrastructure projects that support more people to walk, wheel and cycle for everyday journeys including the 2.5 mile Broughty Ferry to Monifieth scheme and the South City Way in Glasgow, (both funded via Places for Everyone) that were completed in May and July, respectively. We also introduced new delivery models for active travel, with a new regional behaviour change programme (The People and Place programme) supported by £19 million of funding and the tiered Active Travel Infrastructure Fund receiving £45 million of funding (Tier 1: £35 million; Tier 2: £10 million). These models align with Public Service Reform, providing Local Authorities and Regional Transport Authorities the direct funding, autonomy and flexibility to put in place the interventions that help address the priority challenges they have identified. In March, the Cabinet Secretary visited one of the first completed projects to be delivered from the Infrastructure Fund, the A807 Active Travel corridor in Milngavie, which had received over £0.5 million in Infrastructure Fund funding.

Safety on Scotland’s roads remains a top priority, and during 2024-25 we invested almost £30 million in road safety and trunk road casualty reduction measures. This included behaviour change campaigns and educational materials, re-opening the Road Safety Framework Fund and the Road Safety Improvement Fund which provided grant funding to local authorities for key active travel infrastructure projects, in addition to providing funding via our operating companies for safety critical casualty reduction works across the network. Through the Safety Camera Programme, we helped deliver two pilots of temporary average speed cameras on seasonal routes – A82 Luss and A836 NC500 during summer/autumn 2024. We have also made progress of rolling out the implementation of 20mph speed limits on trunk road locations where it is appropriate.

We are already seeing encouraging improvements in the number of people walking and cycling where there is safe infrastructure, and we have seen significant transformational infrastructure delivered this year, for example: in Glasgow’s South City Way, linking the South Side and the City Centre; in North Ayrshire, where we have extended the National Cycle Network at Fairlie; and in Clackmannanshire, with over £1.8 million funding supporting a new walking, wheeling and cycling route between Alva and Menstrie.

In-year investment of £2.3 million saw completion of West Highland line platform extensions enabling introduction of 7-carriage Highlander Explorer trains complete with Active Travel carriages with space for sporting gear between Glasgow, Fort William and Mallaig from 11 March 2025. Step free access was also delivered at Carstairs Station with construction of a new footbridge and lift as part of an investment of £2.1 million in 2024-25.

NTS Priority 4: Helps deliver inclusive economic growth

Delivering a wellbeing economy requires a resilient and reliable transport system that gets people and goods where they need to be and allows businesses to be competitive. Scotland’s Trunk Roads are the predominant transport network in Scotland, facilitating the movement of people and goods that link all forms of vital socio-economic activity. Often, they are a lifeline service. The Scottish trunk road network comprises a wide range of asset types including around 3,700km carriageways, 4,374 bridges & structures, 373,000 ancillary assets (e.g. lighting, road markings, safety barriers, drainage networks) and Traffic Scotland’s 18,200 assets (e.g. CCTV cameras, vehicle detectors and overhead motorway signs), which together provide a service to road users as well as being the largest asset which Scottish Ministers own (£33 billion net asset value). The trunk road network carries 40% of all traffic and 70% of heavy goods vehicle traffic.

The network is hugely diverse, ranging from the ten-lane M8 in the centre of Glasgow to single carriageway sections in the west Highlands. With a Roads budget of £688.9 million in 2024-25 we continued to safely operate and maintain Scotland’s trunk road and bridge network, using established and robust asset management and environmental principles, allowing it to contribute to Scotland’s sustainable economic growth. This year, this included our response to Storm Éowyn which triggered a rare red weather warning for wind, disrupting the road, rail and ferry networks as well as delivering over £6 million worth of adaptation work at vulnerable locations. On the Forth Road Bridge, the recently installed automated barrier systems became operational allowing for speedier transfer of traffic from the Queensferry Crossing during an Ice Accretion incident.

Progress on the dualling of the A9 continued in 2024-25 with the construction contract for the Tomatin to Moy project awarded in July 2024. Major construction works commenced in Spring 2025, kick-starting our rolling programme of construction to dual the A9 between Perth and Inverness. Procurement of the Tay Crossing to Ballinluig section commenced in May 2024, and a shortlist of three contractors was announced in August 2024. In July 2025, the contract award for Tay Crossing to Ballinluig was announced and a contract notice was published for the fifth section between Pitlochry and Killiecrankie.

We also completed Phase 1 of the medium-term solution improvements at the A83 Rest and Be Thankful, awarded a contract for the long-term solution ground investigation site works and published draft Orders in December 2024 for both the medium and long-term solutions. These works will support local businesses, tourism and communities, by improving access to the Highlands.

The first of the six new major vessels – MV Glen Sannox – was delivered into service in January 2025 and construction continues on MV Glen Rosa. The four vessels under construction at the Cemre vessels yard are now approaching completion, and delivery of the first vessel is expected before the end of 2025, with the three others to follow in 2026. CMAL signed shipbuilding contracts with Remontowa (Gdansk, Poland). Contracts were signed in March 2025 for seven electric vessels in Phase 1 of the Small Vessel Replacement Programme, with the first delivery expected around summer 2027. We also continued to plan, progress and complete port improvements on routes including the Islay (Kennaraig, Port Askaig (Islay), Port Ellen (Islay), Colonsay) and Little Minch ports (Uig (Skye), Tarbert (Harris), Lochmaddy (North Uist)) in preparation for new vessels.

We published our Aviation Statement in July 2024, which sets out, for the first time, the strategic importance of aviation to Scotland and the specific actions we will take to help ensure we can continue to enjoy its many benefits, while significantly reducing emissions.

We helped to ensure the events across the country ran smoothly for participants and visitors while keeping our transport network moving. These events included Taylor Swift’s concerts held over 3 nights in June 2024 at Murrayfield, Edinburgh.

We launched our new Traveline Scotland app and website, providing more information on tickets, fares, real time location and stop facilities to improve end to end journey planning as our in integrating public transport.

In the ICP Strategic Approach paper, we confirmed Reliability and Resilience as number one priority for future ferry services. These services provide connectivity for accessing basic necessities on islands including, food supplies and fuel and also provide links to education, social and healthcare services. To support this statement we set out, in the ICP Vessels and Ports Plan, an investment programme needed to maintain and safely operate CHFS and NIFS services. We also set out the programme to carry out refreshed transport needs assessments for island and peninsula communities served by CHFS and NIFS ferries. We completed and published the first of these assessments for Cowal/Rosneath route.

The Scottish Government has long held the belief that the best way to deliver rail services in Scotland which deliver inclusive economic growth, is for those services to be publicly owned and operated. Public ownership of ScotRail has enabled procurement of a fleet of trains to replace the ageing InterCity trains, known as HSTs; procurement of the replacement fleet commenced mid-December 2024, with the aspiration to have the full fleet of trains in service on all the InterCity routes serving Scotland’s cities, by the end of 2027. Publicly owned railway services will help us to achieve our vision of a reliable, resilient, affordable and accessible railway. This was the reason Scottish Ministers took the decision to move ScotRail and the Caledonian Sleeper into public sector control through operator-of-last-resort arrangements. However, under the existing UK legislation at the time, this could only be on a temporary basis. Recognising the clear benefits that rail services remain in public control on a permanent basis, Scottish Ministers worked closely with the UK Government on its Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Bill to ensure Scottish Ministers secured public ownership as the default position rather than the last resort.

The Scottish Parliament passed the required Legislative Consent Motion, paving the way for the Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Act gaining Royal Assent on 28 November 2024. This provides stability for the industry setting out the long-term position for publicly owned railway services in Scotland. Transport Scotland continue to work with Department of Transport colleagues on the development of the proposed Railways Bill. Transport Scotland will work, in the interest of Scottish Ministers, to ensure their priorities for rail are retained and that Scotland receives the benefits of a more integrated railway whilst protecting the devolved responsibilities of the Scottish Ministers. This work is ongoing.

Corporate Priority: To put our people at the heart of our delivery

To put our people at the heart of our delivery, we have:

  • Continued to review the size and shape of Transport Scotland to best address both current and future challenges. This work will continue through 2025-26 and will consider how we work together to deliver our business objectives.
  • Progressed with the relocation of our headquarters to 177 Bothwell Street, with completion and entry in May 2025. The project ensured inclusivity and wellbeing at the heart of its design, with colleagues’ views taken at a very early stage and continued collaboration throughout across our workplace champions group to ensure important factors such as reducing our space requirement, ensuring choice within the workplace, reducing our carbon emissions and providing a better colleague experience were considered and checked where relevant as the project progressed.
  • Continued to deliver our Transformation programme through a series of workstreams which have been shaped and informed by staff feedback, centred around: Culture; Structure; and process and service design.
  • Developed a Wellbeing Strategy & Action Plan that will ensure targeted action continues in support of our drive to improve the health and wellbeing of colleagues.

Our Key Risks and Challenges

The management of risk is an integral part of Transport Scotland strategy, operations and decision making. A risk is anything that can impede or enhance our ability to meet our current or future objectives and the achievement of the Transport Scotland’s priorities, responsibilities, and outcomes. The Transport Scotland Senior Management Team review risks monthly, supported by the Transport Scotland Risk Management Group, which includes representatives of each Directorate. The risk register is also reviewed by the Transport Scotland Audit and Risk Committee at each meeting. Our work and responses to identified risks are underpinned by a programme management approach which encourages cross directorate working to cut across traditional team boundaries and bring together a variety of skills, professions, and knowledge. Risks are reported and escalated to Ministers, DG Net Zero as Portfolio Accountable Officer, and Scottish Government Executive Team, as appropriate

Key Risks

Transport Scotland categorises risk in line with the Orange Book: Management of risk – Principles and Concepts. The corporate risks below are grouped by category and reflect those considered for escalation to the Portfolio Accountable Officer.

Commercial

During the reporting year risks relating to the upcoming change in operation of the Clyde and Hebrides Ferry Services Contract to a direct award in reliance on the exemption in regulation 13(1) of the Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2015 (PCSR), (often referred to as the “Teckal” exemption) were escalated to the Scottish Government Corporate and Director General Net Zero risk registers due to the complex and exceptional circumstances. These risks have been successfully addressed or mitigated to an acceptable level and the successful and sustainable contract management of the service remains an area of ongoing risk management.

Financial

The Scottish Government has faced the most challenging financial situation since devolution, as a result of unprecedented economic pressures, following the pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis. Transport is particularly impacted by these challenges, given its exposure to energy price and construction sector inflation, as well as pay and ongoing patronage recovery following COVID-19, on the public transport network. Resultingly there is a risk of allocated budgets being inadequate to meet ongoing operational requirements, legal commitments and ministerial priorities and objectives.

We have mitigated this risk through regular review and updates to financial forecasts, continued dialogue with Ministers and Scottish Government colleagues and delivering value for money projects. It is within this difficult landscape that we have had to take tough decisions to prioritise work that will most effectively deliver on our commitments. Despite these ongoing challenges, we remain focused on delivering the NTS priorities, operating and maintaining a transport system that everyone needs, and progressing the First Minister’s stated missions of eradicating child poverty, growing the economy, tackling the climate emergency and of improving public services.

As a result of the challenging fiscal position Scottish Ministers have been clear on the need to reform how public services are delivered, commissioning an in-depth review to identify further opportunities for greater efficiency. While significant reforms have already been achieved, including bringing Scotrail into public ownership, more remains to be done. The Scottish Government’s Public Service Reform Strategy and Medium-Term Financial Strategy set all public bodies the challenge of delivering costs savings and managing headcount by 2030. We will engage with our stakeholders and work with Ministers and our sponsor bodies to identify the optimum means of supporting Minister’s ambitions in this area whilst maintaining a focus on delivering the high-quality public services that support Scotland’s people and economy.

Operational

The trunk road network needs to be maintained to meet the level required for its safe operation and to ensure it can support Scotland’s economy. Transport Scotland has worked with Scottish Government finance and Ministers to prioritise assets with greatest potential for significant network disruption and maintain our Asset Management Plan to help inform capital investment decisions. This is supported by continuing to review our resilience arrangements across all transport modes as appropriate, maintenance interventions incorporated in Strategic Transport Projects Review 2 (STPR2) and developing maintenance programmes to meet statutory and Ministerial commitments.

A prompt and effective response to significant incidents is essential to minimise disruption to the strategic transport network. Multi-agency contingency plans are in place across all modes for dealing with both anticipated and unanticipated disruptive events. Key freight flows and lifeline services are given priority in any contingency plans and forums and processes are in place to ensure that lessons learnt from incidents, including severe weather events, are included in future contingency plans and procedures.

The Risk relating to industrial relations on the rail network impacting service delivery and revenue were escalated to Director-General (DG) level. Failure to agree a pay deal resulted in a temporary timetable being implemented, the impact of which reduced service delivery and revenue. Following agreement of pay deals in 2024-25 and 2025-26, the risk has now been removed from the DG Risk Register although it is being monitored closely.

Storm Eowyn brought exceptionally strong winds across Scotland on 24 and 25 January 2025 causing considerable impact across Scotland’s transport networks. Prior to the commencement of the Red weather warning period at 10am on 24 January 2025, traffic volumes on key trunk roads and motorways routes were 50-60% lower than normal levels, which reduced to 80-90% lower during the Red weather warning period. Despite the majority of the public taking cognisance of the warnings and broadcast media interviews that were undertaken, there was still significant impacts across the road network including fallen trees, power cables, overturned HGVs as well as road traffic collisions. The Queensferry Crossing remained open to cars during the peak winds of Storm Eowyn. This structure benefitted from the wind protection measures included as part of the design for the crossing. In the days following Storm Eowyn, the Trunk Road and Motorway Network was also subject to secondary impacts around weakened trees that came down and debris that was still getting into drainage systems, which created some further localised disruption.

The entire rail network across Scotland was closed for the duration of Storm Eowyn. Significant damage was noted across several main rail lines with trees blown on to tracks and damaged rail infrastructure. ScotRail reinstated all services 3 days later once all storm damage had been addressed.

Climate change

The transport emissions reductions required to meet our statutory climate change targets require ambitious new policies for inclusion in the next Climate Change Plan and delivering of existing Climate Change Plan Update transport sector commitments. We have commissioned research to build the evidence base to inform and identify policy options to ensure a just transition to net zero. We monitor policy delivery and take forward engagement with internal and external stakeholders including public sector organisations, businesses, industry, and the public. Transport Scotland continues to be represented on the Scottish Government Global Climate Emergency Board and manages its own response through the Transport Climate Change Board. Transport Scotland Directors are Senior Responsible Officers for oversight of their delivery objectives and risk mitigation, reporting and escalating to the Climate Change Board as required.

Reputational

Changes to the usage of the transport network following recent societal and economic changes could lead to a medium to long-term reduction in farebox passenger revenue and impact on service provision that would disproportionally impact on vulnerable communities and groups. We are taking forward the actions and next steps published in the Fair Fares Review to advance our vision for the future of public transport – reliable, accessible, available, and affordable public transport services and a public transport system that is viable and sustainable in the long term.

Security

The threat of cyber-attacks requires proactive management of risk to ensure we secure and have access to our systems and data. Working closely with the Scottish Government, we have cyber resilience policies, systems, procedures, resources, and an incident response plan in place, which are supported by staff awareness and training to identify and avoid risk exposure.

People

Our people are central to what we do and essential in achieving our organisational objectives. If we do not create the conditions to promote the wellbeing of our staff, then we will reduce our capability and capacity to deliver our business objectives. Our Senior Management Team review management information and discuss issues impacting our people regularly. Work to consider how the agency develops is underway to ensure we are the right size and shape for the challenges ahead.

To support effective management of our people resource we have revised our resource plan to better reflect the current operation of the organisation. In addition, we are currently working through a programme of transformation. The Transforming Transport Together Programme is the term we are using to describe the overall work to improve Transport Scotland. It is made up of the following six workstreams which have been informed by staff feedback:

  • Organisation purpose
  • Prioritisation exercise
  • Wellbeing
  • Organisational design
  • Leadership and managing change
  • Learning and development

The programme is guiding us through a process to shape Transport Scotland to continue to deliver for Ministers and the people of Scotland, and looks at how we currently work and how we want to work to become an organisation where:

  • we are resilient – we have the tools we need to do our job, workload expectations are clear, balanced with capacity and we have collective and transparent controls in place
  • we are delivery and outcomes focussed
  • we understand our purpose and can effectively prioritise our work
  • we can efficiently use our available working time
  • we are empowered to work broadly and flexibly across teams
  • we work in a way that aligns with our values, and we have capacity to do that.
Oracle Cloud platform
Scottish Government

The implementation of the Oracle Cloud platform is one of the largest transformation projects the Scottish Government has undertaken in years. It has brought our HR, Finance and Procurement data into one integrated solution, delivering a single data source, improved processes, improved controls and greater transparency of data.

The platform was implemented in the Scottish Government and 32 public sector organisations including Transport Scotland in October 2024. A phased approach on 1 October saw around 3,000 users begin accessing the first 3 finance modules, with the HR component rolled out to the full customer base (around 20,000 users) across Scottish Government core and 32 public sector bodies on 7 and 8 October. A further rollout on 14 October saw the implementation of additional finance modules. The platform has been built around a suite of best practice processes, adopted from the UK Government Global Design principles (now superseded by NOVA Functional Reference Model) and was implemented in response to the recognition that the previous Finance and People platforms, SEAS and e-HR respectively, were approaching the end of their useful lives and had not kept pace with the scale or functions of the organisation.

To ensure that the platform continues to meet the ever-evolving needs of modern government the Scottish Government has put in place a dedicated management team which will manage and maintain the platform with a process of quarterly updates.

Transport Scotland

As part of the phased roll out, Transport Scotland formally transitioned to the Oracle Cloud Platform in October 2024 along with the wider SG. While this move offers long term benefits it is not without the inherent risk of system implementations. The implementation of a new financial ledger part way through 24/25 presented significant challenges with the reconciliation process and the preparation of the unaudited financial statements. This required extensive manual review and cross checking, resulting in a substantial increase in workloads to ensure the accuracy and integrity of the accounts. Transport Scotland has implemented additional internal controls and reviews to provide assurance of data integrity to deliver accurate financial reporting. To minimise the operational impact, additional training was delivered by Transport Scotland users to upskill teams and resource was required to provide change management support for Transport Scotland staff.