ScotRail is not very well known on the Continent, but well in Great-Britain. This public rail network covers the whole of Scotland and is very dynamic. Scotland is a constituent nation which is inside the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Since the late-1990s, a system of decentralisation has emerged in the UK, under which Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have each been granted some measure of self-government within the UK, which is often referred to as « devolved powers ».
Railways are « devolved powers ». The Rail franchising system in Great Britain was created by the Railways Act 1993. Franchising allows a private operator to provide rail services on the rail network. Scotland, which has its own government, is therefore free to operate its rail network as it sees fit. He also decides who will operate the rail network.
The scottish style
The ScotRail brand was created by British Railways Scottish Region manager Chris Green in the mid 1980s to provide a distinctive brand for the rail network in Scotland. The brand has developed and is still in use today. Since 2008, it is the permanent name of the Scottish franchised rail services, regardless of the train operating company that operates them.
The railway network is owned by the national Network Rail, the non-profit organisation responsible for all of the railway infrastructure. Rail services are provided under franchises awarded by the scottish government. The Scotrail franchises have been operated since 1997, successively by National Express, First Group and currently Abellio. However, despite the arrival of Brexit, the London government does not plan to transfer the Scottish part of Network Rail to the Scottish regional Government.
Transport Scotland was created on 1 January 2006 as the national transport agency of Scotland. It is an Executive Agency of the Scottish Government and accountable to Scottish Ministers. In September 2010 Transport Scotland merged with Transport Directorate of core Scottish Government. They continue to be called Transport Scotland although they now have responsibility for all transport related issues across Scotland, including aviation, rail, transport policy,…
Network Rail Scotland looks after Scotland’s railway infrastructure – 2.776km of railway lines, including the world-famous Forth Bridge that connects passengers in Fife, north of Edinburgh. Main railway lines:
– the East Coast Mainline ;
– the West Coast Mainline ;
– the Highland Mainline from Perth to Inverness ;
– the Borders Railway from Edinburgh to the Borders ;
– the West Highland Line from Mallaig and Oban in the Scottish Highlands to Glasgow ;
– the Edinburgh to Aberdeen from Edinburgh to Aberdeen.
ScotRail provides over 94 million passenger journeys each year, with over 2,300 intercity, regional and suburban rail services a day and more than 340 stations. In october 2014, the Dutch company Abellio wins the new franchise, and It was confirmed that the main lines are the aim of the « Rail Revolution » desired by Scotland. The franchise, previously held by First Group, runs until 2025. The decision to give the £2.5billion contract to Abellio has triggered a political row.
Their bid included plans for cut-price fares to jobseekers, free Wi-Fi and advance £5 fares between Scots cities along with a vow to put on more trains. But transport unions and Labour condemned the award of the 10-year deal to a company based overseas.
Electrification programme
Of the 2,776 km of rail track in Scotland 25.3% (711 km) is electrified. The Glasgow main station had already received the 25kV catenary in May 1974 as a part of the electrification of the WCML. Edinburgh Waverley station received his 25kv in 1991 only, on the occasion of the electrification of the ECML. As a result, there was no electrification between the two cities, which came only late through the EGIP program.
Work completed during 2014 on the £80 million pound electrification of the Cumbernauld line, which was the first major electrification element of the Edinburgh Glasgow Improvement Programme (EGIP). In October 2017, the Glasgow-Edinburgh line was entirely electrified. The fastest journey times between Glasgow and Edinburgh taken now 42 minutes. This represents a major step in a country that remains historically focused on diesel railways.
New rolling stock
With around 7,000 new rail vehicles on order to replace more than half of the passenger rolling stock fleet, Britain’s trains are about to change as never before. Scotland is no exception. Scotrail is transforming all of its rolling stock: Hitachi Emu’s class 385 comes to regional services, old HSTs reconfigured for long distance services and new train sets for the Caledonian Sleeper, the night train to London.
New regional trains
the Edinburgh to Glasgow main line is currently operated by a mix of trains. As well as the Class 170 DMUs that have been operating the service since 2000, ScotRail has arranged for Class 380 EMUs (released from Ayrshire and Inverclyde services) and Class 365 EMUs (surplus units leased from Eversholt) to operate the service.
Hitachi Rail Europe supplies Abellio with 70 electric multiple units (Emus), which will form 46 three-car trains and 24 four-car trains (234 rail cars). These will run on the newly electrified Edinburgh-Glasgow line as well as on the Stirling – Alloa – Dunblane lines. In July 2018, Scotrail/Abellio commissioned its new trains, the Class 385. These seven-coach trains (set 3 cars + set 4 cars) have 479 seats which is 27 per cent more than the Class 170 DMUs operating on the route. Eight-coach Class 385 trains (2 four cars) have 546 seats.
Long distance services
The train service between Edinburgh, Dundee and Aberdeen currently has 15 intercity roundtrips, including 3 trains from London by the East Coast franchise. Between Glasgow and Aberdeen, there is a clock timetable with 16 round trips on weekdays, by the Class 170 Turbostar Dmu.
It is worth remembering that ScotRail do not serves intercity links with London. The Glasgow-London line is managed by the West Coast Main Line franchise, managed by Virgin until 2022. The Edinburgh-Newcastle-York-London route is managed by the most controversial franchise: East Coast Main Line.
In 2012, Transport Scotland published the results of its rail passenger service consultation. This considered how the railway should develop and the types of passenger services required. One conclusion from this consultation exercise was that passengers traveling from central Scotland to Aberdeen and Inverness much preferred to travel in Virgin Trains East Coast High Speed Trains (HSTs) from Glasgow or Edimburg than ScotRail’s Class 170 diesel multiple units (DMUs). Transport Scotland discussed how to change its long-distance rail transport. Its results were incorporated into the specification for the ScotRail franchise which was renewed in 2014. New trains were an option, as was the reconstruction of what many consider to be the best passenger train ever built in Britain: the HST 125.
Nearly 70 venerable – and iconic – HST 125 trains are being replaced in Britain by the Hitachi 800 class IETs. They will not be scrapped because Scotrail is taking over 54 engines and 121 cars, leased from Angel Trains, to form 17 Intercity trainsets of 5 cars and 9 sets of 4 cars. They are therefore shorter sets framed by two engines. Angel Trains Chief Executive Malcolm Brown said: « The fleet will undergo interior and technical improvements prior to entering into passenger service, to ensure that it can meet the requirements of modern inter-city travels. »
The DG Design office was taking part in the new HST branding under the Scotrail brand. DG Design has created a new brand identity for the HST service, developing the exterior livery and interior colour palette & finishes. The livery features iconic landmarks representing the seven major cities served, reinforcing its inter-city credentials. The technical refurbishment of the power cars was done through Brush Loughborough while the Mark III cars were refurbished at Wabtec Rail in Doncaster. ScotRail’s ‘new’ HSTs will provide 40 per cent more seats on their intercity routes, which will no doubt soon be filled. As a result of this new generation of HSTs, Scotrail has been able to connect the seven main Scottish cities of Glasgow, Edinburgh, Perth, Stirling, Aberdeen, Dundee and Inverness as early as 2018-2019. The existing Dmu’s will be introduced on shorter routes with more frequency, which is beneficial for everyone.
The line to Aberdeen was this week the first to receive the HSTs for ScotRail – a strategic decision as they already run on the route (operated by Virgin Trains East Coast). The SR’s Haymarket depot will be the future home of the HSTs. Inverness and Aberdeen depots currently service Virgin East Coast HSTs, ScotRail DMUs and Mark 3 Caledonian Sleeper coaches. Soon they will handle East Coast Class 800 bi-mode units, ScotRail HSTs and the new Mark 5 Caledonian Sleeper coaches as well as some ScotRail Dmus.
This new HST fleet will provide a 33 per cent increase in capacity on Scotland’s internal inter-city network. Their high power-to-weight ratio will deliver the reduction in journey times required by the franchise specification and ensure the severe gradients in the highlands are not a problem.
That said…
However, it remains surprising that ScotRail does not put more cars on trains that many customers find crowded. Austrian Railjets have at least 7 cars. Most Intercity in Germany or Italy have 6 to 10 cars. As the British gauge bans double-decker rolling stock, ScotRail, like all companies in Britain, can only rely on longer train lengths and higher frequency. The option of HST 3 or 4 cars is certainly economical, but it would have been better to remain with the complete 8 car’s set. High frequency also means sufficient tracks to receive all trains in Glasgow and Edinburgh stations, and a process that allows these trains to quickly leave these major stations to allow free tracks for subsequent trains, and so on. In many stations in Europe, some platform have a sufficient lenght which accept 2 different train sets, as on the dutch network.
New night trains
The London-Scotland night train exists since … 1873! In 1995, shortly before privatization, the service of the two night trains was transferred to ScotRail, which relaunched the service in 1996 under the name of ‘Caledonian Sleeper’. In 1997, the new ScotRail franchisor, National Express, took over the operation, followed in 2004 by First Group. In 2012, ScotRail announced that the Caledonian Sleeper would be a separate franchise. The Scottish government announced a massive investment of £ 100m (€ 127m in 2012). In May 2014, the franchise was awarded to Serco with a commitment to replace the Mark 2 and Mark 3 coaching stock by 2018.
The Serco Group is active in multiple UK sectors like in the health, immigration, utilities and transportation sectors. It forms with Abellio a 50/50 joint venture that has exploited the Northern Rail franchises (since taken over by Arriva) and is still active on Merseyrail (Liverpool). On 31 March 2015, Serco Caledonian Sleepers Limited took over the operation of the Caledonian Sleeper.
There are two Caledonian-Sleeper, which serve two distinct areas of Scotland. The first leaves London Euston at 21h and serves the north of Scotland in three branches to Aberdeen, Inverness and Fort William. The second train is very late departure and leaves Euston at 23:50 with two branches that separate at Carlisle: one to Glasgow, the other to Edinburgh. Both trains will be fully renewed with an investment of £ 100 millions (€ 110 million), covered by the £ 60 million from Scottish Government. This resulted in the order of 75 cars at the Spanish manufacturer CAF, in the Basque country. The first five cars were delivered last July and are currently being tested on the UK network. Peter Strachan, president of Serco-Rail UK, is determined to make Caledonian-Sleepers « the new symbol of Scotland ». The first full sets are scheduled for May or June 2019.
Next step
British railway infrastructure manager Network Rail is planning to invest £4bn in Scotland railways between 2019 and 2024 in a bid to maintain and enhance the rail network in the area.
On the political side, Transport Scotland has published its strategy for investment in rail improvements that sets out how funding will be targeted over the next 10 years. The new Scottish Government is to form an infrastructure commission to advise ministers on how spending should be directed to provide most economic benefit. According Public Technology, the challenge with that though ‘is trying to imagine what some of those challenges will be in the next 20 years, with autonomous vehicles coming down the line, the way we can use digital to help manage traffic systems, new rolling stock, behavioural changes around how people use public transport.’
Of course, the franchise system is at the heart of a battle that is shaking all British politics. Labor wants to renationalize ScotRail as in the good old days. Alex Hynes, Managing Director of ScotRail Alliance, responds : ‘we are delivering one of the biggest upgrades to our network since Victorian times. That demonstrates the hard work of our dedicated staff at the ScotRail Alliance, a partnership between Abellio ScotRail and Network Rail. But we aren’t complacent. The major investment we are making now will mean faster journeys, more seats and better services for our customers.’
We will see if these good arrangements will transform Scotland’s rail transport. ScotRail will need to pay close attention to the availability of rush hour seats. A sustainable development policy, which is announcing even more passengers on the railways, must not ignore the problem of capacity, both at infrastructure level and at train level.
References
Scotrail HST, par le bureau DG Design
ScotRail’s ‘new’ HSTs – Rail Engineer
Strategic Business Plan 2019 – 2024: Scotland
Chemin de fer n°566, 2017/5 (french magazine)
Mediarail.be - Rail Europe News 
Vous devez être connecté pour poster un commentaire.