Scottish government announces rail pipeline fund to support local initiatives

From April this year, community led initiatives will be able to tap into a £2m Scottish Government fund to develop options to improve local rail connections.

Announced as part of today's budget, the fund will be open to local organisations to carry out appraisal work on potential options to improve community access to rail services.

Humza Yousaf, Minister for Transport and the Islands said:

'Rail services are vital to the economic and social well-being of communities across Scotland. That is why this Government has invested over £7bn in our railways across the country since 2007.

“This new fund will enable local communities to appraise and potentially bring forward proposals which tackle very specific, local rail connectivity issues. This will allow us to consider these as part of our plans for future investment in our railways."

The formal launch of the fund will take place in the coming weeks once all of the necessary practical processes around the application, assessment and governance procedures have been put in place.