Inevitably perhaps, from our perspective as rail campaigners, it is disappointing in terms of a complete absence of plans to provide additional infrastructure, such as passing loops, double-tracking and electrification.

Basically the tenor of the plan is working with what is already there more efficiently and more economically.

There are many references to the Office of Rail and Road's (ORR) Public Performance Measure (PPM) of 92.5%. This is not considered achievable until the end of the period, if then. The text on this is somewhat contradictory, stating at one point that the PPM doesn't apply if trains are "disrupted by speed restrictions due to severe weather or delayed connections", yet elsewhere mentioning that NR's forecast is "ambitious but achievable, given the increasingly challenging weather context in which it's being delivered."

'Annex A' of the plan is called "Our Plan to make Journey Times faster". NR's plan is to "build confidence and trust that we're working collaboratively with all our customers and demonstrate our focus on making journey times faster, we've developed metrics so that we can transparently measure our progress."

"For ScotRail's Inter7City services between the Central Belt and Aberdeen and the Central Belt and Inverness, we've developed a plan to deliver 'a mile a minute' journey times by 2030."

"The Inter7City metric has been forecast based on the delivery of our eight commitments in this plan. It will be re-forecast once final business cases have been agreed for investments such as the Aberdeen Route Upgrade and the Highland Main Line corridor enhancement. The delivery of both these investments and the delivery of the eight commitments in this plan will result in mile a minute journey times."

[The eight commitments referred to here are all about internal systems for reporting and assessing progress.]

The aspiration for "a mile a minute" journey times on the HML really puts into perspective the difference between the Highlands and the rest of the country - Glasgow to London at this speed would take the best part of seven hours.

Meanwhile, the Far North Line, whilst having had some much needed improvements is still plagued by insufficient passing loops and an increasing journey time on some trains. The HML has been seeing its journey times successively lengthened, with much longer dwell times at Perth to allow for late running. Bus companies are tempted by the easy competition they face on the A9, which will only diminish even more as the road is improved. On the freight front we can't even find timber wagons to provide the planned service from Altnabreac to the West Fraser factory at Dalcross.

The various reports and plans which the parts of the Scottish rail industry produces, including STPR2, are always a frustrating read for us since it seems that the Scottish Government is not really grasping the nettle of building infrastructure to achieve its aims. Railways are expensive, but essential to achieve the modal shift targets for passengers and for freight. The current economic climate makes any extra spending difficult, so hopes for even a small project such as the Delmore Loop in the immediate future, are fading.

The Highland 'railway deficit' is already very serious, in common with other areas of spending, such as health service provision. There are some services, including both of these, which cannot be calculated purely on a per population basis. The distribution of parliamentary seats for Holyrood mitigates against the Highlands' needs being fully taken into account. There are ten MSPs, of whom only three have constituencies, the other seven covering the whole region. This means that some 25-30% of the Scottish landmass is represented by fewer than 8% of the MSPs, while the Highland railways represent nearly 20% of the Scottish railway system.

We are told that the 'business case' method used to calculate the value of a proposed investment is not based purely on monetary benefit but includes potential economic development, social, and environmental factors. It would be most interesting to see real-life examples of how this works.

The railways in the Highlands are so far behind the rest of the country that a fresh look needs to be taken by the politicians, and a serious plan laid, to avoid Scotland becoming even more divided by its geography. The 2021 report, Rail for All, by David Spaven and David Prescott for the Scottish Green Party, would make an excellent template, but this requires MSPs to understand the need, and to prioritise accordingly.