 The first item of business this afternoon is portfolio questions. The portfolio on this occasion is transport. I invite members wishing to ask a supplementary question to press the request and speak buttons during the relevant questions. There is quite a bit of interest, so brevity in questions and responses as far as possible would be appreciated. I call question number one, Ruth Maguire. To ask the Scottish Government what action it's taking, including through discussion with the UK Government to ensure that rail services are safe and accessible for all. Cabinet Secretary Fiona Hyslop. Well, both rail safety and accessibility are reserved to the UK Government. The Scottish Government has fully funded the Office of Rail and Roads independent determination of network rails costs to deliver a safe and high performing network. Officials at Transport Scotland meet regularly with representatives from the Department for Transport and Network Rail to discuss various matters, including safety and accessibility. Only last week, I met with the chair of Network Rail Board and the chair of Office of Rail and Road Board to discuss how the Scottish ministers requirements will be delivered by Network Rail. Ruth Maguire. Thank you, cabinet secretary, for that answer. Anyone who regularly uses the railway will have witnessed the benefit of having a safety critical guard on the train. I personally received invaluable assistance recently in supporting a young female passenger who was being harassed by an older male. I know that the Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that public transport is safe and accessible for all and is particularly mindful of the challenges faced by women and girls travelling alone. Will the cabinet secretary use her influence to implore publicly owned ScotRail to show that they are too and to keep the guard on ScotRail? While staffing is generally a matter for ScotRail as the employer, the Scottish Government continues to specify a requirement that all ScotRail services should have a second staff member on board to assist passengers. I can also say that Transport Scotland is taking forward with stakeholders the 10 recommendations from the work on women and girls safety in public transport. I can also relay that ScotRail's travel safe team are being successful in their operation and are doing patrols, particularly with British transport police, and they are doing joint patrols when there are areas of antisocial behaviour that can cause difficulties. The ScotRail high-speed trains reportedly contributed to the tragic outcomes at Carman as they are less safe than modern standards. The cabinet secretary in her predecessor consistently refused to give me a date for replacement and many suggest that that is due to the cost of the break clause in the contract with the Roscoe. Does the cabinet secretary confirm that financial considerations play any part at all in the refusal to replace those HSTs? He raised a similar point recently, and he was wrong and misrepresented the findings of the Carmarth board in relation to those trains. What I can say in terms of the aspects of replacement is that that is an active consideration. We are engaging on fleet replacement, and we will inform Parliament at the due point. Therefore, in relation to his point, it is not about cost. It is a recognition that we need to replace those trains in line with other aspects, including, as he knows, the decarbonisation of the line at Aberdeen South. I would implore him, and I have written to him—I am not sure if he has received the letter—correcting him in his misunderstanding. I think that it is really wrong to misrepresent that Carmarth safety board and its recommendations. Question 2, Willie Coffey. Thank you to ask the Scottish Government whether it will revisit the feasibility of a bus lane corridor on the northbound M77 into Glasgow. Minister Jim Fairlie. The second strategic transport projects review that was published in 2022 recommends that bus priority interventions are implemented within Scotland's cities and towns where congestion is at its highest. That recommendation seeks to implement schemes that are targeted at delivering faster and more reliable journey times for bus passengers. In the case of the trunk road and motorway network, Transport Scotland will build on the current work for progressing plans for the bus priority in the M8, M77 and M80. That work remains under development in particular considering the changes in travel patterns post-Covid and wider policy priorities. Willie Coffey, I thank the Minister for that answer. With the news confirmed yesterday that over £1 billion has been cut from our capital budget by the UK Government and no prospect of that being reinstated by any future UK Government, how can we make progress in Scotland with projects like this and park and ride facilities too that would really help us to encourage more commuters out of their cars and onto the excellent bus services that we offer? I thank Willie Coffey for that response. This Government is committed to improving public transport to encourage modal shift, which in turn would result in a reduction of car-based trips and associated emissions. Bus priority measures at appropriate locations have potential to deliver greater punctuality and reduce journey times and offer a competitive alternative to the private car, particularly where the measures include interchange with other public transport services in active travel. The second strategic transport project review also recommends a framework for delivery of mobility hubs to enhance transport interchanges and accessibility services. I thank the Minister for that answer. The minister rightly highlights pinch points in and out of a city to deliver a successful bus lane usage, but he also recognised that there are other pinch points, such as at the Belfood interchange, where 41 per cent of traffic in and out of North Ayrshire travels through. I am sure that my colleague Sharm Diwy would mention the Dutch House roundabout and another roundabout along that route. If we do not get them right, unfortunately, a bus lane will not be practical. As I said, there is on-going work to look at. Transport Scotland is looking at areas right across the country. Once that review is complete, we will be able to have better answers for that. 3. Russell Findlay To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on how it plans to support local authorities to address the issues of potholes in the road network. I appreciate the road maintenance challenges across Scotland and the importance of a safe, well-performing road network. However, local road maintenance is the responsibility of local authorities who allocate resources on the basis of local priorities. The 2020-24-25 local government settlement provides record funding of more than £14 billion to local authorities, including £144 million of funding for the council tax freeze. That represents an increase of £795.7 million. Ultimately, it is for locally elected representatives to make local decisions on how best to deliver services to their local communities. 4. Russell Findlay I thank the cabinet secretary for that answer. Roads in my west of Scotland region are in a dangerous state of disrepair just as they are across Scotland. One in four constituents replying to my annual report say that pothold and poor conditions are their main concern, with one paisley resident telling me that cratered local roads are like the surface of the moon. The SNP has slashed council budgets year after year, so surely the cabinet secretary can admit that her government must fill council's funding gap so that it can fill the potholes. 5. Alison Johnstone All on the day after that autumn statement that provided no capital on support for the Scottish Government, I am not going to diminish people's experience of roads. We all understand that as MSPs, but if you referred to the Scottish local government finance statistics for 2022-23, the net revenue expenditure by local authorities on roads maintenance increased by 12.2 per cent from £143 million in 2021-22 to £161 million in 2022-23, and that was an increase of £18 million. There is an issue of how local authorities spend their funding, but on those statistics, despite difficult circumstances, local authorities actually spent significantly more on the road maintenance than the year before. 6. Kevin Stewart Does the cabinet secretary wish, as I do, that the Tories would explain to us how the Scottish Government is supposed to support local authorities to address potholes as they ask when their party is utterly content to see Scotland's budget slashed by their Westminster masters? Does she agree that this sort of gaslighting is why the people of Scotland will never elect them to run this country? I completely agree that there is no credibility for the Conservative party to come to this chamber and ask for money for this Government to give to local authorities at a time when they are absolutely providing no increase and taking 10 per cent out of our capital budget over the next 10 years. I think that they live in some kind of parallel universe. 4. Rachael Hamilton To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the bus partnership fund, including what the spending plans are for the £473.1 million that is reportedly unspent to date and when the fund will be resumed. Following the UK autumn statement delivered in the worst case scenario for Scotland and a nearly 10 per cent real terms cut that my colleague has just mentioned here in her capital budget from the UK Government, the Scottish Government had to take the difficult decision to deliver a balanced and sustainable spending plan for £24.25. As such, regrettably, the bus partnership fund has been paused for £24.25, however, future funding availability will be considered as part of our annual budget setting process and prioritisation exercises. I thank the minister fairly for that answer. Since the pandemic, lifeline bus services, particularly those in rural areas such as the borders, have come under significant pressure because of increased operating costs and reduced revenue income. Some operators have withdrawn services completely in rural areas, affecting young people and elderly people. A temporary pause in direct funding for the bus partnership fund is disastrous for the future of rural bus travel. Therefore, will Jim Fairlie tell me where the funding has gone and when will he reinstate the direct funding for the bus partnership fund to ensure that rural local authorities and transport operators can continue to provide vital rural transport links? The parallel universe that Fiona Hyslop has just talked about has been said again. The budget has been cut by £1.6 billion. You cannot magic money out of the air. The Scottish Government will continue to put the priorities that it can to make sure that rural bus users are not at all difficult. I fully understand that, but we cannot magic money out of nowhere. If the budget is continuously cut, what will happen is that services are going to be frozen. We will come to the decision about how we are going to get those things back in line once we can put budgets back in place without the savage cuts that we are facing currently from Westminster Tories. I remind the chamber that we will listen to the questions with courtesy and respect, and we will listen to the responses with the same courtesy and respect. There are a number of supplementaries. I will try to get them all in. They will need to be brief as well as the responses for John Swinney. Did the minister hear the France Secretary say during the budget process that she had received no alternative proposals in the budget process from the Conservatives? As a consequence, the proposition that has just been put to the minister is laughable because the finances cannot be delivered to support it because of the cuts to the Scottish Government's budget by the United Kingdom Government budget. I absolutely agree, but I think that we always need to come back to the point that this affects people. When we cut budgets, when we have had these things happen, it is Rachel Hamilton's constituents, it is my constituents, it is John Swinney's constituents who feel the brunt of it. We must be able to find a way of being able to work together to get those budgets back in so that we can provide the services that we want to provide. Presiding Officer, I spoke to SBTE, SESTRANS and many individual local authorities who, between them, must have put in hundreds and millions of pounds worth the bids for this fund. Does the minister accept that it is crucial that we have this investment if we are going to get the bus services up to a point where people will want to leave the car at home and use them, and therefore can we ensure that we prioritise this budget as part of an overall strategy to get more people out of public transport and into buses? Minister. There is a lot of stuff that Alex Rowley is saying that I absolutely agree. Of course we want to get more public transport, but we want to get people into buses exactly as he says. The fund is paused. The Government has not said that it is not going to continue at a later year. If we can get our budgets back to where we would like them to be after the cuts that they have faced, that is what this Government will do. I am absolutely committed to bus travel working for the people of Scotland. When the SNP came to power there were almost half a billion journeys on the buses every year. Over the following decade it dropped by 100 million before dropping further since the pandemic. For the years before the autumn statement, why did the Government fail to spend the budget that was designed to reverse that decline? I very much hear what Willie Rennie is saying, but he completely forgot to talk about the pandemic, the fallen numbers of bus users that have happened during the pandemic. Let me give you one example. In south of Scotland alone, over 180,000 people benefit from free bus travel, making over 460,000 journeys in the last month alone. We are absolutely committed to trying to do everything that we can to maintain bus service in Scotland, and it would be really helpful if our budgets did not continuously get slashed. To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to support ferry users in light of reports, the MV Caledonian Isles will be out of action for four more months. The delay of the MV Caledonian Isles returning from essential dry docking is regrettable, and I recognise the frustration felt by the Arran communities as a result. I spoke with Calmax chief executive last week to convey my concern. I have been clear that I expect Calmax to apply the route prioritisation matrix, which includes more emphasis on the level of use by island residents in commercial vehicles, along with higher priorities for routes with limited capacity on alternative services. The Arran community and others across the network need those assurances, particularly as we look towards the Easter break and beyond. Meanwhile, Arran is being served by the MV Isle of Arran with currently no capacity issues being reported. As the cabinet secretary knows, the Arran route is the busiest service, with islanders, tourism and the wider economy heavily reliant on it. The MV Isle of Arran will not have the capacity needed to provide the service as the year progresses, as the cabinet secretary has already alluded to. In our discussions, what has been said in terms of how capacity can be increased on the route as the year progresses? That was one of the messages that I gave to Calmax in terms of the capacity issues, particularly for the highly used service to Arran. Indeed, that is part of their activities, is to identify if there are other measures, alternative measures, that for the July-August period particularly there can be some improvement in capacity for Arran to help support that holiday season. Tourism perception is critical. Irresponsible comments by Tory list MSPs that the ferry service is catastrophic does nothing to convey the reality that Arran is open for business. Calmax is making 11-hour efforts to maximise capacity on the address and to broader group with MV Isle of Lewis birthing trials, the results of which will not be known until next week. Does the cabinet secretary agree that Arran's community must be fully briefed on those trials so that they can plan effectively for Easter? Those birthing trials are part of that attempt to identify it. There are other ways to improve capacity, but I completely agree with Kenneth Gibson's sentiment that, despite those challenges, Arran and all our islands are very much open for business this Easter. It is important that we will take responsibility to make sure that we all take responsibility to make sure that our messaging is clear on this, including in commentary in this chamber and indeed by others in the press. To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the reopening of the train line south of Ayr in light of the fire at Ayr station hotel. The restoration of rail services, including south of Ayr, is dependent on the completion of works to make the Ayr station hotel building safe, which South Ayrshire Council is responsible for. I understand that the council leader may have suggested dates when the rail services will be restored, but on what basis is not clear. It was inadvisable, as he was no locus to do so. I was clear when I met him that he must not take on that role of speaking for the rail authorities. Announcement of when there is restoration of rail services can only be for Network Rail and ScotRail to advise. Only when the council's works to make the hotel safer completed will the rail industry be able to get access to carry out the necessary works to enable the restoration of services. Once there is certainty around the completion date for the safety-related works, Scotland's railway will start to communicate the timings for services being restored. The line being closed is having a huge impact on visitor numbers to Ayr and to the surrounding local economy. The Scottish Grand National will be air race scores on 20 April, when well over 20,000 race scores will be coming to Ayr for the weekend. The Grand National supports a lot of jobs, gives a substantial boost to many air service businesses and is a major event for the local economy. It is imperative that the railway is open before it starts, as the current arrangements are totally inadequate, especially that no trains can travel south. What action is being taken now to reopen the line, and will the minister guarantee that the railway will be back to normal before the Scottish Grand National? The member really has to take a level of responsibility. The railways can only open when they are safe to do so. It is imperative that all of us are considered in our remarks about when that rail service can be open. I hear what she says about the Grand National. It is one of the biggest days of the year in Ayr. I remember waitressing on the day and how busy the time was with people coming in. I can say to the members that we will identify, with all our colleagues across Transport Scotland, how we can support the transportation to Ayr to ensure that there is a successful Scottish Grand National that day. To ask the Scottish Government what factors are assessed when determining vessel deployment decisions for western Isles ferry routes. A vessel deployment is an operational matter for CalMac, but ministers recognise the impact being felt as a result of service disruption following requests by communities and sought by ministers. CalMac has reviewed the route prioritisation matrix for the major vessel fleet with the support of the ferries community board. Following public consultation, CalMac made a number of changes to their prioritisation approach, including more emphasis on the level of use by island residents and commercial vehicles, along with higher prioritisation for routes with limited capacity on alternative services. I fully expect that to be applied by CalMac when considering options. My constituents have welcomed the summer timetable redeployment decisions that were announced yesterday while MV Caledonian Isles undergoes extensive repairs. However, CalMac is still exploring another alternative, namely using MV Isle of Lewis on the Uig Triangle, taking her away from Castle Bay to Oban. Can the cabinet secretary assure my constituents that any vessel deployed on that last route in this scenario would be more likely to be reliably suitable for such an exposed route than MV Isle of Arran, which was being considered for this route by CalMac as recently as last week? Scottish ministers note the concerns of communities as CalMac seeks to optimise deployment on the reduced fleet across the summer period until the return of the MV Caledonian Isles. As Dr Allen will be aware, it is the responsibility of the operator to make detailed deployment decisions, although we expect them to take into account the capacity capability, as I have said already, of the vessels as part of that consideration. We understand that the trials will be taking place next week to further consider the feasibility of this option. To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the improvement plan for the five-circle railway line. It was helpful to meet the member last month improving the services for five communities. It is a priority issue for me and my officials at Transport Scotland. I am pleased that there has been a reduction in short-form services in Fife, which is welcome. However, further work is required. My officials have engaged through Scottish Rail Holdings to require improvements to rolling stock maintenance to make more trains available for service each day. There is a range of work under way to improve services in Fife, and, due to the £116 million investment by the Scottish Government, we will look forward to the reopening of the lever-mouth line. I thank the cabinet secretary for her answer, and, although it is welcome news that improvements are evidently in the pipeline, my constituents would want to know, however, when the improvement plan will, in fact, be implemented and whether it will address directly the long-standing problems with overcrowding and cancelled trains. Over-crowding in Fife services is due to short-forming of trains that serve this route, caused by poor diesel fleet reliability, which is a legacy issue that is caused in part by poor staffing and fleet choices made by the previous franchisee. My officials have required Scotland Rail to develop an improvement plan, which is currently under way. It will include issues around fleet availability in a monitoring system. It is now in place and improving useful to direct improvement action. There is a recruitment campaign and related management action. That should deliver material improvements with the availability of maintenance staff in a matter of months. There is a number of fleet improvement investments also being identified, which should deliver further improvements over the next two to three years. However, some of the items that I have said are more immediate, and I will make sure that that is put forward in a form that people can see, particularly the member who has pursued the strategy. With new stations being opened at Leven and Cameron bridge in June this year, rail campaigners across Fife are feeling inspired right now and very hopeful. Key progress is being made in the business cases for St Andrews and Nubra re-openings. Will the cabinet secretary congratulate those communities who are leading the way? Does she see a need to expand rail further in Fife to try and get that modal shift away from car usage that we need nationally? There are a number of communities right across Scotland and particularly in the Fife and indeed St Andrews area pursuing improvements and developments for the rail system. I commend the efforts of all those involved in Starlink in progressing the transport appraisal for the St Andrews area, which involves considering a range of multi-modal transport options. We do want to improve modal shift. It is important that rail is part of that. I understand that the appraisal for the planning that you just referred to is on-going and there is no final conclusion to that. In the earlier in this session, I asked the cabinet secretary a straight question as to whether financial considerations were holding up the replacement of the class 43s. In her response, she suggested in a dare say somewhat intemperate language that I was wrong and misrepresenting the findings of the Parliament board in relation to those trains. Now, I am happy to send her a copy of the report and I refer her especially to sections 76 and 77, but I especially refer her to the bit that it says RAIB considers it more likely than not that the outcome would have been better if the train had been compliant with modern crash-worthiness standards. I wonder therefore if you might give the cabinet secretary an opportunity to read the report, to reflect on her remarks, to correct the record and to send me an apology. Thank you, Mr Kerr. That is not a point of order, as you well know. Obviously, items that are said in this chamber are on the official report, not just my response, but Mr Kerr's rational questions this week and last week. I think that it is really important that we get the safety record understood, and I am more than delighted to send or resend the letter to Liam Kerr, correcting his misrepresentations today and previously. Thank you, cabinet secretary. That also is not a point of order, but it is now on the record. There will be a brief pause before we move to the next item of business to allow front benches to change.