Scotland is nationalising its railways

[Brainaddict]

I just got an email from Scotrail about this and was surprised I hadn't heard more fanfare about it. Seems most Scottish train routes are to be effectively nationalised from 1st April:

Scotland's train services nationalised from 1 April

Minister say there will be talks on future services, but opponents say they are ill-prepared.

www.bbc.co.uk

I assume there will still be some routes running up from England with English-based franchises, but I doubt Scotland can do anything about that. Seems that with the Scottish govt temporarily taking over the franchise during covid, and the old franchise being a dog's dinner, they realised it was better to just run it themselves. How sensible.

 

[Pickman's model]

Transport Scotland | ScotRail franchise

Learn about the company behind the current ScotRail franchise, how the brand helps taxpayers and what we're doing to improve your travel experience.

www.transport.gov.scot

what they say on the scottish govt transport site about this, giving some background and further information

 

[Brainaddict]

Changed the thread title to make it clearer that this is happening, it's not just a discussion about 'Scotland nationalising railways'.

 

[planetgeli]

Wales did it in February.

 

[toblerone3]

Well I hope they make a good job of it, running a railway system both tracks and trains is not easy and there are many pitfalls along the way. I also hope that they they continue (and this might sound a bit odd in a post supporting nationalisation) to make judicious use of private sector sub-contractors where this delivers good service and value. I really want the public sector model of railway management to succeed.

 

[Brainaddict]

Well I hope they make a good job of it, running a railway system both tracks and trains is not easy and there are many pitfalls along the way. I also hope that they they continue (and this might sound a bit odd in a post supporting nationalisation) to make judicious use of private sector sub-contractors where this delivers good service and value. I really want the public sector model of railway management to succeed.

I'm not really worried about the efficiency of public sector control at the beginning as they will be highly motivated to do it well, and would think its just a matter of whether they can get all the skills in-house. I think there's some truth to the idea that public sector bodies can get stuck in ruts and bad ways of doing things (and alas with deadweight staff), so I'd be more concerned about in 10, 20 years time. But it's definitely not inevitable that public sector bodies decline with age, good management can sort it out.

 

[T & P]

In the Continent they seem to manage it without too much trouble...

 

[teuchter]

In the Continent they seem to manage it without too much trouble...

Here we go again.

 

[davesgcr]

Wishing them well - but Scotland at the moment is trending the lowest % of passenger journeys compared to pre Covid. Not been up there for a decade - but always impressed by their operations.

To be fair , they have openly discussed the patronage / cost and options for all domestic routes. Going to be a challenge to uphold aspirations compared to inevitable changes going forward.

These trains coming in from south of the border - Avanti / LNER / Cross Country, TPE and now LUMO make a significant contribution. (for example Lockerby is obviously in Scotland and has no Scotrail trains !)