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Total expenditure on transport infrastructure, as reported within The National Transport Statistics 2015 edition and within the Transport Scotland Annual Report and Accounts, totals £18billion since 2007. The totals for each year are shown in the following table. A breakdown of transport infrastructure expenditure by local authority area is not available.

Source: Years 2007-08-2014-15 = Scottish National Statistics 2015 edition, Years 2015-16 and 2016-17 = Transport Scotland Annual Report and Accounts 2015-16 and published Scottish Budget.

Whilst total expenditure on transport infrastructure, as reported above, totals £18 billion since 2007 to date, a breakdown by local authority area is not possible. This is in part because some investments are of a national nature (Forth Replacement Crossing) and others span a number of local authority areas, such as the M80, the M74 and the M77 construction projects.

The Scottish Government recognises that Lockerbie provides a key rail hub, with links both north and south, and therefore aims to protect and enhance the number of stopping services at Lockerbie Station. Lockerbie station is served predominantly by First TransPennine Express services, with additional Virgin Trains services.

(a) First TransPennine Express (TPE): Following meetings between Transport Scotland officials and First Group in 2015, our proposals for greater connectivity for Lockerbie [and Motherwell] have been addressed, and the new franchise will deliver additional early morning/late evening services between Lockerbie and Edinburgh/Glasgow to facilitate commuting and recreational opportunities from 2017. Additionally, TPE has responded to our concerns by, for instance, calling at Carstairs so as to allow Lockerbie commuters to connect with ScotRail’s Edinburgh-bound services.

(b) Virgin West Coast: The Scottish Government’s response to the recent Inter City West Coast refranchising consultation, made clear that there ought to be a focus by Train Operating Companies on working with others to deliver improvements at stations, including Lockerbie, with measures to increase connectivity and attractiveness particularly welcome.

(c) ScotRail: Lockerbie station is managed by ScotRail but their services do not call at the station.

Transport Scotland is part of the Scottish Government and discussions / meetings with occur regularly in the normal course of business.

Transport Scotland continues to have regular and frequent discussions with its Operating Company (Amey) regarding the effective maintenance and management of all trunk roads in the south east of Scotland, including the A7 through Langholm.

The Minister for Transport and Islands met the A7 Action Group in Parliament on 15 June 2016 to discuss their Action Plan, which set out its aspirations for the route and included a number of improvements in the vicinity of Langholm. Transport Scotland has undertaken a review and identified a range of items within the Action Plan that they now propose to take forward further consideration towards. This will be done alongside on-going maintenance and improvement programmes on the route.

Our inspection regime is designed to ensure that the trunk road network is safe for use and fit for purpose and to provide the data required to support asset maintenance planning. The regime is set out in the Road Asset Management Plan for Scottish Trunk Roads which can be accessed at: http://www.transport.gov.scot/road/maintenance/road-asset-management-plan

We commission annual machine-based road condition surveys to ensure that we achieve best value from our structural maintenance programme. Deflectograph surveys provide an indication of road structural strength to estimate remaining useful life; Scanner surveys provide an assessment of current surface condition and SCRIM surveys provide a measure of wet skidding resistance.

Also, in accordance with their contractual requirements, our trunk road operating companies are required to carry out safety inspections, safety patrols, night time survey patrols, detailed inspections and condition surveys. Our operating company contracts can be accessed at: http://www.transport.gov.scot/road/maintenance/operating-companies .

The temporary lights on the A76 at Enterkinfoot have ceased to operate as required on five occasions. These were identified through the Operating Company’s daily inspections and were quickly made serviceable again.

Between 2007-08 and 2015-16, we have spent over £7 billion in our Rail Network, including 76km of new railways delivered and 13 new stations opened.
The budgeted spend on rail in 2016-17 totals a further £0.75 million. The totals for each year are as follows;

Source: Years 2007-08 – 2015-16: Transport Scotland Annual Report and Accounts, Year 2016-17: published Scottish Budget

The number of temporary traffic signals on the trunk road network changes daily according to demands. On a typical day such as the 21st September 2019 there were 76 sets of temporary traffic signals three of which were in Dumfries and Galloway.

Transport Scotland were first aware of slope stability issues in Enterkinfoot in mid-September 2014.