Scottish Government takes control of ScotRail franchise
After 25 years of private sector operations, rail services in Scotland are due to come under the control of a public company owned by the Scottish Government on April 1.
By ‘Industry Update’
RAIL services in Scotland are due to come under the control of the Scottish Government on April 1. This has come about because the option to extend the current Abellio franchise for a further three years after the initial seven-year period from 2015 has not been taken up.
To maintain services during the Covid pandemic, an Emergency Measures Agreement (EMA) was instituted in April 2020, in which Abellio was paid a management fee to operate services specified by Transport Scotland.
The EMA arrangement has not been continued and the Scottish Government has used powers to establish a publicly owned Operator of Last Resort (OLR) – as has been the case in England for LNER, Northern, and South Eastern, although the circumstances have been different in each case. Transport for Wales has also followed this approach.
OLR companies are intended as an interim arrangement until a new franchise/concession competition is held or a direct award is made to an operator.
It is known that under the revised Great British Railways (GBR) structure, private sector operations will be continued and that OLR companies will not continue indefinitely.
In both Scotland and Wales, there is currently no intention to return operations to the private sector, which will force decisions to be made as to whether complete devolution of railway operations – including infrastructure ownership – will take place as part of the overall GBR changes.
ScotRail brand
There has been a distinctive railway in Scotland since the ScotRail brand was established in 1983 as a part of the newlyformed Regional Railways sector within British Rail. An extensive exercise to create visual branding took place, and newlybuilt diesel multiple units were introduced to replace the locomotivehauled services and Mk.1 rolling stock. Although this created capacity problems at times of high demand, the journey experience was improved.