Railtrack is accused of creating a North/South divide by stopping all significant rail investment at the Forth in a document which will go before Aberdeen councillors next week.

Director of planning Peter Cockhead suggests the council should be questioning Railtrack as to why their plans only extend for 10 years and do not consider long-term network development.

His report is a response to Railtrack's network management statement which was issued for public consultation in March. The annual statement, which it is required to produce, is the third since privatisation and, for the first time, a separate report for Railtrack in Scotland has been prepared.

Railtrack intends holding a consultation forum in the summer.

The statement contains measures and targets for reliability and capacity of the network; provides details of passenger and freight demands on the system; outlines where there are bottlenecks in the network, and gives Railtrack's plans to eliminate these.

Railtrack has committed #17bn over the next 10 years, with #991m to be spent in Scotland, an increase over the previous year.

However, Mr Cockhead says in the report to the planning and strategic development committee: ''Whilst financial commitment looks impressive in Scotland, concerns should be raised regarding the spread of investment over the full 10-year period, particularly set against activity in other parts of the UK.

''Maintenance, renewals and enhancement expenditure diminishes over the period 1997/98 to 2007/8. Scotland only gets 1.3% of national expenditure between 20001/2 and 2006/7.''

He said Railtrack intends publishing details of its investment criteria in the future.

''Of the 14 major 'schemes in progress' only three relate to Scotland,'' said Mr Cockhead. ''In monetary terms only 18.7% of the total #3268m is allocated to Scottish schemes. Of the 46 'schemes under development', only seven relate to Scotland and this accounts for only 6.2% of total spending.'' He said that, of 45 detailed route strategies, eight related to Scotland and only two were relevant to Aberdeen. He pointed out that the East Coast Main Line referred to excluded the northern part of the line.

''The East Coast Main Line has always been regarded as London to Aberdeen, and any severing of this link in Railtrack's planning could be detrimental to the North-East.''

The councillors will hear that in terms of passenger growth it is disappointing that Railtrack have focused their attentions on ''the Central Scotland market'' particularly between Edinburgh and Glasgow and some parts of Fife.

''They do not appear to have assessed the potential for passenger growth in other areas such as the North-east,'' says Mr Cockhead.

He adds: ''Significant investment is required to improve line speeds, efficiency, the number of commuter links - and the frequency of trains - to attract rail commuters and business travellers.

''In conclusion, it appears that all significant rail investment stops at the Forth. There is a continued lack of funding north of the Forth which is leading to a North/South divide.''

A spokesman for Railtrack said it would welcome welcomed Aberdeen City Council's response, which would be considered as part of the consultation process.

''We would want to relieve their concern that spending stops at the Forth Bridge or that there is a North/South divide in Scotland,'' the spokesman added.

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