Oxera’s assessment of the economic contribution of the rail industry in Scotland
Our analysis considers how the rail sector affects the Scottish economy from the following perspectives:
- the employment, tax, investment and GVA that it generates (its ‘economic footprint’);
- the benefits to passenger and freight users from its products and services (the ‘user benefits’);
- its long-term effects on the wider economy—i.e. the benefits outside the rail sector (the ‘wider economic impacts’);
- its environmental and social impacts.
Oxera estimates £1bn in user benefits and £331m in wider economic benefits in the context of net government funding to the Scottish rail sector of £716m in 2013/14.[1]