CarlisleCityRMT

Rail Strategies in Scotland and Cross Border Rail Services

The 2005 Railways Act gave new powers to Scottish Minister in relation to the network in Scotland. The Scottish Executive is now responsible for specifying and funding the railway infrastructure and managing and funding passenger services.

Some welcome progress has been made in Scotland over recent years in terms of new and re-opened lines.

May 2008 saw passengers services run between Stirling-Alloa-Kincardine for the first time since 1968. Service will benefit both passengers and freight, as freight trains to Longannet [power station will see a significant reduction in journey times.

There are plans to re-open the rail link to the Borders, also closed during the Beeching cuts, build a rail link to Glasgow Airport and run services between Airdrie and Bathgate. In addition, the Scottish Executive continues to award Freight Facilities Grants which have helped to remove millions of lorry journeys from the road network in Scotland.

The First Group took over the ScotRail franchise in 2004. Operations were due to last until 2011, with the possibility of a three year extension. RMT supported a bill in the Scottish parliament in 2006 which called for passenger services to be run on a not-for-profit basis.

The previous operator National Express received around the same level of subsidy as those which have been handed to First ScotRail. However, whilst National Express made an average pre-tax loss of around £8 million, First Group made pre-tax profits of £11.9 million and £16.5 million in 2005/2006 and 2006/2007 respectively.

In early April 2008, and a full three years before the franchise was due to end, the SNP Transport Minister, Stewart Stephenson, announced that the franchise was being extended by three years.

The announcement pre-empted Audit Scotland's review of the ScotRail franchise due to be published this Autumn. The SNP led executive did not see fit to inform Audit Scotland of the franchise extension either.

The new franchise agreement is even more generous than the previous contrace. First ScotRail are now allowed to make annual profits of £30 million before profit sharing arrangements kick-in. The SNP led executive is more interested in giving incentives to business rather than running rail services on a not-for-profit basis which was their previous not-for-profit policy.

It is diffiuclt not to believe, however, that the decision was influenced by pressure from First Group who were seeking to appease its shareholders concerned about the poor performance and breach of the First Great Western franchise in England and South Wales.