§ Mr. Alasdair MorganTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will list the temporary speed restrictions in force on railways within Scotland on 13 March, indicating(a) their location, (b) normal line speed, (c) temporary line speed, (d) length of track affected, (e) date of imposition and (f) planned date of lifting. [154558]
§ Mr. HillAs of 13 March, 38 temporary speed restrictions as identified in the National Recovery Plan were in place on five of the eight strategic route groupings of Railtrack's network in Scotland. These were:
- the West Coast Mainline;
- the East Coast Mainline;
- Edinburgh to Glasgow,
- Glasgow and Edinburgh to Aberdeen and Inverness;
- South West Scotland;and
- Strathclyde.
These 38 speed restrictions had a total length of 6.14 miles. Of these eight (1.05 miles) had a speed restriction of 20mph, a further 15 (2.55 miles) were up to 40mph and a further 15 (2.54 miles) up to 60mph. Normal line speeds on these routes are typically between 35mph and 105mph.
The speed restrictions were all imposed since the Hatfield accident and are scheduled for removal at various dates over the coming weeks. Railtrack is in regular dialogue with ScotRail and other train operating companies to ensure this work is completed with minimum disruption to passengers and freight customers.
In addition, as with other parts of the network, routes in Scotland will continue to be affected by other speed restrictions needed to maintain safe operation in adverse operating conditions and to enable normal maintenance activities to be completed. Some of these additional restrictions are imposed because of gauge corner cracking.