Scottish rail services plan

[John Ashworth]

Scottish rail services plan being outlined by minister Brown

BBC 21 June 2012 Last updated at 00:24

Scottish Transport Minister Keith Brown is to outline his plans for train services, ahead of the current rail contract ending in 2014.

It will come in light of a consultation by government agency Transport Scotland which suggested reforms, including a blanket alcohol ban on trains.

Recommendations to cut sleeper services and have cross-border trains stop in Edinburgh had already been dismissed.

Mr Brown will make a statement to MSPs at Holyrood later.

Other suggestions in the document, which was published in November last year, included;

- raising fares on those routes which have benefited from improvement works
- removing first-class services
- providing additional capacity when overcrowding is an issue
- and looking at whether to increase the time passengers may have to stand.

In May, a separate investigation of rail services by the Scottish Parliament's infrastructure committee recommended tougher targets to tackle the problem of late-running trains, while arguing there was a "strong case" for having a longer franchise period - suggesting 10 years, with a three-year extension.

MSPs also said they were "not persuaded" Scotland's railway would represent better value for money if the franchise was split into multiple contracts.

FirstGroup currently holds the rail contract, which was one of the biggest awarded by Scottish ministers.

Mr Brown will also argue the Scottish government's rail ambitions are being hampered by UK legislation, under which Scotland has been denied powers to change regulation or improve accountability.

The government puts more than £700m a year into services, while the money ScotRail makes from passengers pays for about a quarter of the cost of providing its services.

Sleeper trains

There are about 78 million passenger journeys each year, according to Transport Scotland, while demand for services has increased by more than 25% in the past seven years.

This week has seen the launch of a free wi-fi trial on four trains running between Glasgow and Edinburgh, Scotland's busiest train route.

In March, Mr Brown ruled out plans for cross-border trains heading to and from the north of Scotland to stop at Edinburgh for a change-over.

And last December, the Scottish government agreed to commit £50m to secure national sleeper train services, with the UK government putting in the equivalent amount.

In 2014 the deadline will be up for renewing the financial arrangements of Network Rail, which looks after infrastructure.