INTRODUCTION From The Chief Executive

INTRODUCTION
From The Chief Executive

This is Transport Scotland’s second Corporate Plan, setting our strategic direction for the next three years. Its central theme is the vital part transport improvements will play in delivering greater prosperity and opportunity for the businesses and people of Scotland.

This Corporate Plan 2008-2011 lays out what we intend to achieve on behalf of Ministers over the period, and how we will make a real difference for the businesses and people of Scotland. The Plan stresses the importance of our task in overseeing and developing Scotland’s strategic transport network, and the tangible impact that these activities will have in supporting and boosting Scotland’s growth, productivity, and participation. The high level aims and programme we describe in this Plan will in turn feed into our annual business plans, which will set out in more detail how we intend to deliver against our objectives in each year and will form the basis against which we will measure progress in our annual reports.

Our focus is on making journey times better and more reliable, improving strategic transport connections, encouraging a shift from lorries and private cars, and on improving safety, while at the same time promoting innovation and reducing emissions. All of this added together will help us to develop transport infrastructure and services in Scotland of which we can be proud. These priorities fully support the Scottish Government’s strategic objectives, and have an important part to play in delivering its Purpose of increasing sustainable economic growth.

The creation of a strongly-focused transport body as part of national government has given us the basis to build the professional and people strengths that are essential to the successful delivery of major projects, and the growth in the level of transport investment activity in Scotland over the last two years has provided the critical mass and momentum which in turn have enabled us to build synergies across our programme and extend the organisation’s overall capability and capacity. We are well placed to deliver on the priorities set out in this Plan, working in partnership with our transport industry colleagues and with the wider public sector.

The major transport projects which are now under construction or in active development will return a net benefit of £12.5 billion to Scotland, delivering not only direct economic savings to businesses and individuals that come from improved transport links, but also significant benefits from improved road safety and other wider social gains such as better accessibility and reduced environmental impact. The social and user benefits that have already resulted from the national concessionary travel schemes will provide a basis for achieving further transport integration, as will the expansion of our transport information systems.

But while there is much continuity from Transport Scotland’s inaugural Corporate Plan, this new Plan reflects significant new challenges. One obvious example is the Forth Replacement Crossing, which was not even contemplated when we were established. Another is the growing awareness of climate change, and the need to promote environmentally sustainable means of transport.

Our delivery priorities for the next three years reflect these changed circumstances. Transport is a sector with long planning horizons, yet at the same time the provision and management of transport infrastructure and services is so central to the functioning of our economy and society that it also has an inescapable immediacy.

This Plan reflects that dual context. As an organisation, Transport Scotland greatly values the opportunity to be at the heart of managing these challenges, and our second Corporate Plan is intended to convey not only an awareness of the wider importance of the tasks we face but also our readiness and enthusiasm for them.

Malcolm Reed CBE
Chief Executive, Transport Scotland