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The Scottish Government continues to provide financial support for bus services to keep services more extensive, and fares more affordable than would otherwise be the case. On 1 April 2022, the Network Support Grant was introduced, with up to £93.5 million allocated for 2022-23 and an additional £25.7 million is being provided to extend the Network Support Grant Plus until October of this year. The Scottish Government continues to engage with bus operators and local government to keep support under review.

COVID-19 recovery funding is provided via the Network Support Grant Plus and paid as a pence per kilometre rate for each kilometre actually run. Funding is provided by advance payment on forecasts and then payment is adjusted after the scheme ends in October to ensure the final payment reflects actual services operated. This will include recovery of any funding paid to operators for services that did not operate. The scheme has not yet ended so no reconciliation or payment recovery from operators has yet taken place.

The replacement (planned and unplanned) of train services with bus replacement services remains an operational matter for ScotRail.

ScotRail advises that the breakdown for each day during May and June 2022 for planned and unplanned bus replacement is as follows:-

The following table shows the number of valid card holders in the Young Persons’ Free Bus Travel Scheme as of close of business 11 July 2022, analysed by local authority. This information is based on live data as of 11 July 2022 and will exclude those who have turned 22 since the launch of the scheme.

This information was supplied by the National Entitlement Card Programme Office (NECPO). NECPO support the 32 local authorities by assisting with the integration of various national and local public services on the National Entitlement Card (NEC) and are the joint controller with local authorities of this data.

The replacement (planned and unplanned) of train services with bus replacement services remains an operational matter for ScotRail. Planned buses replace train services that have been impacted as a result of planned works on Scotland’s railway i.e. planned engineering works. ScotRail advise that 515 buses were booked during April 2022. This figure is particularly high with bus replacement services planned every day in April as a result of the Anderston works.

Unplanned buses replace train services that have been impacted as a result of driver shortages, trespassing onto the tracks, fleet issues, signalling issues, points failures and other track faults. ScotRail advise they were supplied with a total of 143 bus replacement services to cover unplanned train service disruption during April 2022.

The breakdown for each day during April 2022 for unplanned and planned bus replacement is as follows:-

The number of daily Ministerial journeys for the period of 23 May 2022 to 18 June 2022 are provided in the following table.

Roles and responsibilities of the ScotRail Board Members and its subsidiaries are set out in the Grant Agreement between Scottish Ministers, Scottish Rail Holdings Limited and ScotRail Trains Limited and the Framework Agreement between Scottish Ministers and Scottish Rail Holdings Limited. The intention is for both agreements to be published by end June 2022.

Information on salaries/fees of ScotRail Board members will be published by the end of June 2022.

The number of daily Ministerial journeys for May and June 2021 are provided in the following table.

Since the significant landslides that occurred in August and September 2020, contractors have installed various landslide mitigation measures including drainage improvements, debris fences, a catch pit and material barriers to improve the resilience of the A83 and the Old Military Road diversion route. The mitigation has been augmented by the construction of a 175m long, 6m high debris bund, which further protects the Old Military Road.

In addition to this contractors have enhanced operational procedures for managing the A83 corridor including how we monitor hillside conditions during periods of bad weather. So far, the protection afforded by these measures has meant that the A83 and the Old Military Road local diversion have been able to remain in operation for all but eight occasions during 2021 and 2022 to date, meaning traffic did not have to use the longer diversion via Inveraray and Crianlarich. The effectiveness of these measures will continue to be reviewed and improved where possible. As part of the Access to Argyll and Bute (A83) project we are also progressing plans for a medium term resilient route through Glen Croe and we will bring forward proposals for this by late 2022.