New Transport Minister views Winter preparations

Staff have been working hard to do all they can to try to keep Scotland moving during any spells of severe Winter weather.

The centre is the high-tech hub of Transport Scotland’s Winter operations with all transport resilience efforts co-ordinated from there.

It makes use of the latest technology to ensure that the most reliable and accurate information on trunk road conditions is given to those managing the treatment of the routes as well as to the traveling public.

Traffic Scotland has its base at the control centre and Mr Mackay took the opportunity to tweet from @trafficscotland to remind the tens of thousands of people who follow the service to use #winterinfo this year when they are sharing information on road conditions. In the last year the number people who use Traffic Scotland’s digital platforms has increased substantially. Almost sixty-five thousand now follow the service on Twitter and the Traveline Scotland smartphone app, which also includes real time travel information, has been downloaded half a million times.

Minister for Transport, Derek Mackay said:

“One of the major challenges that we face in the Transport sector is the Winter weather and I wanted to see first-hand the preparations that have been made to help mitigate the impacts of storms on the trunk road network.

“The National Traffic Control Centre ensures that the Transport Scotland response to major incidents is well coordinated, with experts from across the transport network, the Met Office and Police Scotland working under one roof. This means that when there is disruption, as I am sure there will be across the Winter season, we can make the decisive interventions that will help get things back to normal.

“It is clear that everything is being done to make sure that the Winter Service is as effective as it can be. I have seen for myself how well the flow of information is managed at South Queensferry and this is vital when we are dealing with any weather related issues.

“Weather stations, located across the country, are now feeding the latest data on road temperatures and conditions back to the control centre. This is used by the road operating companies to plan any treatments.

“We are also making use of all available technologies to get this information to the traveling public through Traffic Scotland. This allows travellers to make informed decisions about their journeys and I would urge everyone to use the #winterinfo when they are tweeting about weather related disruption. People can also get access to the latest real time travel information through our Traveline Scotland app and Traffic Scotland internet radio.”