Scotland's transport infrastructure is of mixed quality. The Central belt between Edinburgh and Glasgow is reasonably well served by train, with four trains an hour running from city centre to city centre, but the key motorway links between them - the M8/A8 and the M9/M876/M80/A80 - are poor. Road and rail transport routes northwards to Aberdeen and Inverness are substantially worse and the far north and north west is even more poorly served.  Similarly, road links to the Borders are slow and train services are virtually non-existant (although there are plans to reinstate the railway between Edinburgh and Tweedbank then, unltimately, on to Carlisle)

The main international air terminals are Edinburgh (EDI), Glasgow (GLA) and Prestwick (PIK) with Aberdeen (ABZ), the fastest growing airport, being dominated by oil-related activity.  Prestwick hosts charter and low-cost carriers only but Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow also have standard scheduled carriers which route to destinations throughout Scotland and the rest of the UK as well further afield.

The importance of sea transport to Scotland cannot be underestimated given the size of its coastline and the number (almost 100) of inhabited islands. It is accessible by sea ferry from Northern Ireland (Belfast and Larne), from Belgium (Zeebrugge) and from Denmark (Hanstholm) and Norway (Bergen). The key island groups are served from the mainland on the west from Oban, Mallaig, Uig (Skye) and Ullapool with Aberdeen providing services to the Northern Isles.