The Scottish Government has approved the first of Scotland's seven regional transport strategies.

The Transport Minister Stewart Stevenson has approved Strathclyde Partnership for Transport's (SPT) strategy, which outlines the partnership’s vision for transport in the West of Scotland for the next 15 years.

SPT say the strategy, called 'A Catalyst for Change', is a high level look at strategic transport priorities across the 12 member council areas until 2023. It is not intended to be a list of specific projects, but shows how transport interventions support the Government's national priorities for a better Scotland.

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: "The strategy sets out SPT's approach to working with its twelve constituent councils to deliver transport priorities at a regional and local level. Delivery of the SPT strategy and transport improvements in the west of Scotland, including agreement on investment expenditure, are a matter for SPT and its constituent councils."

SPT chair, Councillor Alistair Watson, has welcomed the strategy's approval. He said: "A lot of hard work went into producing this strategy document and extensive consultation informed all stages of its development. It is an excellent piece of work that fully reflects the importance of an efficient transport network to Scotland's future prosperity.

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"I am delighted that our shared goals for improving the transport network have been formally accepted by the Scottish Government. SPT is the first regional transport partnership to have its strategy approved.

"I believe this decision must reflect its close alignment and integration with national outcomes."

Amongst the strategic priorities in the strategy are plans to provide a 'step change' for bus services, standards and infrastructure, improving cross-city and cross-region links on strategic corridors, and revitalizing the subway network.

SPT has already started work on certain projects in support of the strategy. SPT's chief executive Ron Culley said: "We have been systematically improving elements of the subway system for the past couple of years. These steps have ranged from high visibility measures like introducing British Transport Police officers to installing real time train information screens.

"The next steps are about the longer-term modernization of the network. More than anyone, we want to provide a state-of-the-art subway system for passengers in Glasgow and we are confident that, as we realise the value of the subway asset base and secure the necessary investment, this ambition will be realised."

Des McNulty, Labour's transport spokesperson, said "Agreement of the strategy without resources is not much use to the hard pressed transport users in Strathclyde", while Alison McInnes, the Liberal Democrats' transport spokesperson said, "I'm glad the minister has got round to approving that."

However, she added: "But we've lost a whole year for regional transport partnerships. They all worked extremely hard to get the strategies in by the end of March last year."

John McCormick, the chairman of the Scottish Association for Public Transport, said that the approval of the strategy was good news, particularly if it leads to developments on proposals for Glasgow Crossrail. He said: "I think it could link up with Glasgow Airport Rail Link, and make it very easy to get around town."

The Scottish Government spokesperson added that the country's other six regional transport strategies - covering South East of Scotland, Tayside and Central Scotland, the Highlands and Islands, the North East of Scotland, Shetland and the South West of Scotland - will be responded to shortly.

(GK/JM)