Scottish Transport Statistics No18: 1999 Edition: Page 1

Scottish Transport Statistics No18: 1999 Edition

A publication of the Government Statistical Service

Brief extracts from this publication may be reproduced provided Scottish Transport Statistics is fully acknowledged as the source. Proposals for larger extracts should be addressed to the enquiries address below.

Enquiries

Enquiries of a routine nature or on the availability of the publication can be made to theTransport Statistics branch, by contacting:

Mr Martin Bolt
Scottish Executive Development Department
Area 1-F
Victoria Quay
EDINBURGH
EH6 6QQ
Telephone: 0131-244 7255

Fax: 0131-244 0888
E-mail: transtat@Scotland.gov.uk

Major enquiries or suggestions for improvement to the publication should be addressed to Mr Frank Dixon, Transport Statistician, at the address above. (E-mail: Frank.Dixon@Scotland.gov.uk)

Conventions

Symbols used

The following symbols are used throughout:

	..	not available
	-	nil or less than half the final digit shown
	l	change in series

Rounding

In some tables, where figures have been rounded, the sum of constituent items may not always agree exactly with the total shown.

Government Statistical Service

A service of statistical information and advice is provided to the Government by specialist staff employed in the statistics divisions of individual Departments. Statistics are made generally available through their publications and further information and advice on them can be obtained from the Departments concerned.

PREFACE

Introduction and Years Covered

This is the 1999 edition of "Scottish Transport Statistics", and is the eighteenth publication in the series. In most cases, this volume provides figures for the years up to 1998, or up to the 1997-98 financial year. However, in some cases, the latest statistics available at the time of going to press were for 1997.

The previous edition, number 17, was published in 1998, and covered statistics up to 1997 or 1996 (or the relevant financial years), depending upon the availability of data at the time the tables were prepared.

Where tables cover a run of years, the aim is that they should provide figures for eleven years (eg for each year from 1988 to 1998, inclusive) to enable the reader to see how the latest year’s figure compares with that of ten years earlier. However, this is not always possible.

The Structure of the Publication

First comes a Summary section, containing information about all modes of transport, which provides a compact view of the trends over the past 10 years, and some comparisons with the figures for Great Britain as a whole.

This is followed by 12 chapters, each on a specific topic, and each of which starts with the following sections:

	1. Introduction;
	2. Main Points;
	3. Notes and Definitions;
	4. Sources;
and	5. Further Information.

The "Main Points" aim to summarise the key statistics and bring out the more interesting and significant points. Readers are recommended to look at the "Notes and Definitions", when using the tables, as these provide insight and qualifications on the statistics. The "Sources" sections provide information about the sources of the statistics, and the "Further Information" sections indicate where further information about the statistics can be found.

After the twelfth chapter, there is a Historical Series section, which shows the trends since 1975 in some key statistics.

Main Changes in this Edition

A "Comparison Between Scotland and Great Britain" table has been added to the Summary section. This provides various key transport statistics for both Scotland and Great Britain. Some of these figures used to appear in the chapters on the relevant topics, and have been removed from there and brought together in the Summary section in order to provide a convenient comparison of the figures for Scotland and Great Britain. Others were not previously included in "Scottish Transport Statistics". Where appropriate, these statistics are repeated in index form (1988=100), and are expressed relative to the population, in order to facilitate comparisons.

The "Historical Series" section has been expanded to include the total number of passengers on certain ferry services in the summary of passenger traffic, and to include a new table showing the trends since 1975 in the numbers of vehicles registered, the numbers of road accidents and the numbers of vehicles recorded as crossing toll bridges.

Several new tables have been added in some of the other chapters. A full list of all the new tables in this edition appears on the page after the detailed list of statistical tables.

There have also been a number of changes to some of the existing tables, for example to provide additional details or because the breakdowns which were used before are no longer available. And, a few tables from the previous edition have been dropped, because the statistics that they contained are no longer available. Information about such changes is given at the start of the relevant chapters.

Finally, the price of "Scottish Transport Statistics" has been increased, for the first time since 1993. However, it should be noted that purchasers will get much better value for money now than a few years ago, because many new tables and much extra text have been added in recent years: the current edition costs £10 and has over 150 pages, whereas, for example, the 1997 edition cost £8 but had fewer than 90 pages.