ABSTRACT
This chapter seeks to illustrate the strategic policy environments which inform the development of the particular rail transport policies detailed in the subsequent case studies. The formal objectives of local rail transport policy in Strathclyde were firmly rooted in the coherent corporate approach to the Region's development assembled across the activities of the authority. The primacy of the Social Strategy is significant in reflecting the hierarchy of Strathclyde's corporate policy aspirations. Within the wide variety of economic and social development roles identified for transport within the urban realm, Strathclyde's stated strategic rail transport policy goals as derived from the aspirations of the Regional Council's corporate Social Strategy strongly emphasise the latter focus associated with city-regional governments. The Passenger Transport Executives, as the statutory transport bodies enacted by the 1968 Transport Act, and the parallel Passenger Transport Authorities as their controlling local governments, are clearly the principal members of the local rail policy regime.
