In a new report Transport Scotland has made the case for the sector, which represents roughly 7% of the nation’s workforce and GVA, against a funding landscape that has stalled, with no signs of immediate growth.
The report – Connecting Scotland – The Value of Transport – shows that the transport sector supports 150,000 full-time employment (FTE) jobs, along with £10bn Gross Added Value (GVA) for Scotland, representing roughly 7% of the nation’s workforce and GVA.
However, it also highlights some constraints that are restricting the growth of the sector.
The main obstacle is a ‘challenging fiscal outlook’. Capital investment in the Scottish transport sector ‘typically matched similar levels’ in the UK, but lagged behind Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) competitors.
The report states that 53% (£2.128bn) of the £4.009bn budget allocation for 2025-26 is capital funding, but points out that this is unlikely to ‘increase dramatically as a share of GDP’.
According to the most recent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR, 2024) forecast, capital spending is ‘due to remain at the same level (in terms of % of GDP) in 2029-30 as it stood in 2023-24’.
The way forward, according to Transport Scotland, is a ‘strategic approach’ to how transport is delivered in Scotland so that it can take account of the impacts that transport can have while recognising the constraints facing the sector.
With no increase in funding expected for 50% of the budget in the near future, it will likely be challenging to expand the number of projects and infrastructure on offer, the report suggests.
‘A large majority’ of spending in the transport sector is focused on replacing and maintaining the existing infrastructure, rather than on new investments and improvements to the network,' it states.
This issue is compounded by the amount of ageing infrastructure in constant need of maintenance and repairs, both planned and in emergency cases.
Earlier this year, director of roads at Transport Scotland, Hugh Gillies, said: 'We have an issue in this country which is starting to show itself - the age of our structures. There's no way to get away from that. And one of the things we are finding is that when you crack open these old structures it is not what you expect.
'They were built to the standards of the day, the as-built drawings are not as you would expect. And it's really, really challenging and it's really expensive.'
One solution put forward by the report is an increase in private funding to continue developing new assets and network improvements. Transport Scotland referred to a 2020 report by the Advisory Group on Economic Recovery, which made the case for the importance of strategic public investment and more effective leverage of private investment into projects.
Keeping things moving
There was an increase from 2022 to 2023 in the number of people travelling to work at least one day a week in Scotland, with the majority of people using the transport network to complete that journey, either by driving (63% of commute modes in 2023) or via the use of public transport (10% via bus and 5% via trains).
The nation also saw roughly 134m tonnes of freight moved by UK HGVs originating in Scotland in 2023.
Cabinet Secretary for Transport Fiona Hyslop made her department's stance clear: ‘Transport has a transformative impact on people’s lives. It gets goods to market, people to their jobs, connects communities, and reliable public transport offers people an alternative to the car. It is clear that transport is a foundation of society and our economy.
‘The transport sector supports over £10 billion in terms of Scotland’s Gross Value Added and around 150,000 full-time jobs – so transport certainly pulls its weight, and I believe we can do even more.
‘Investing in transport is investing in people. The wider impacts transport has on a number of factors – physical health, mental health, wellbeing, access to healthcare, education, jobs – is proof of that.’
