In our latest railway update, policy advisor Paul Tetlaw focuses on both Scottish and cross-border routes, concluding that urgent progress on decarbonisation in Scotland is now required alongside a renewed focus on HS2 to ensure benefits are delivered north of the border.
Changes at Westminster
The new Labour Government has been clear that it wishes to move swiftly on rail reform, bringing the existing private passenger franchises into public ownership and passing the necessary laws to create Great British Railways (GBR) and a ‘directing mind’. Open Access and freight operators will remain in the private sector. However, the overarching objective must be to bring ‘track’ and ‘train’ closer together and so simplify the decision making process.
In the intervening period Andrew Haines-Network Rail CEO, Alex Hynes-Director General of Rail Services at DfT and Robin Gisby-CEO of DfT OLR Holdings Ltd have been tasked with working collectively towards creating the more integrated railway that Great British Railways will deliver. Also, Laura Shoaf-Chief Executive of the West Midlands Combined Authority has been appointed as the Chair of Shadow GBR. There is an element of history repeating itself here as a similar process was followed in the creation of the Strategic Rail Authority in February 2001.
Impact on Scotland
It is not yet clear what impact the new body Great British Railways will have on operations in Scotland. Scotland and Wales currently both enjoy devolved powers over railways and there is planned to be further devolution of powers to Greater Manchester and the West Midlands. Whatever emerges it seems pretty clear that the long established ScotRail brand is here to stay.
UK budget
The recent UK budget was seen as a huge missed opportunity to shift transport investment to more sustainable modes. It was particularly frustrating to find the Chancellor continuing to fail to raise fuel duty which has now been frozen since 2011 while rail and bus fares continue to increase. While fuel duty is not a devolved matter it is clear that the failure to increase the level has a detrimental impact on the attractiveness of passenger and freight services in Scotland. If there was a crumb of comfort for the railway it was the approval given to continue tunnelling the HS2 route to London Euston – more on that later.
ScotRail & Scotland’s Railway
Scotrail services have recently been disrupted by industrial relations issues leading to the implementation of a reduced temporary timetable. This was clearly a stressful period for all concerned and clearly not conducive to developing the railway we would all wish to see in Scotland. It is however noteworthy that passenger demand was maintained during this period. Fortunately these issues have now been resolved and the full timetable was restored from 7 October.
Leven
The restored line to Leven opened on 2 June 2024 to great celebration locally. The new hourly service opens up fresh opportunities for residents in the catchment area to access better work and education opportunities in Edinburgh. Equally, Leven itself should benefit from regeneration and new tourism opportunities thanks to its attractive location on the Fife coast and regular bus services to the coastal villages along the Fife Coast Path. While the current hourly train service runs via Kirkcaldy a new timetable next year will see two trains an hour to Edinburgh alternating between Kirkcaldy and Dunfermline, the latter creating greater connectivity within Fife.
No passenger figures have yet been released but something is expected after six months of operation.
East Kilbride
Further electrification is underway in the West of Scotland with the line to Barrhead benefitting from electric trains from 10 December 2023 and construction work underway on the East Kilbride Line. Redeveloped stations are also being created at Hairmyres and East Kilbride. This welcome scheme will eliminate diesel traction from a further part of the Strathclyde network and deliver cleaner and more efficient train services. To allow for the construction of a new loop and the installation of electrification foundations and masts, there will be a 16-week closure of the route between January and May 2025. The total route modernisation is on schedule for completion in December 2025.
Ayrshire & Inverclyde
Two new timetables were introduced in June 2024 and have been performing very well.
Decarbonisation & electrification in Scotland
Beyond the above scheme there is no current commitment to further electrification work in Scotland and this poses real challenges for the future decarbonisation agenda. There has still been no update to the Rail Services Decarbonisation Action Plan of July 2020 which promised the removal of diesel trains from the Scotrail network by 2035. That is now only 11 years away. This is not merely an environmental issue but one with very real cost implications for the future. Lee Pounder, the Regional Director for Scotland and Ireland of SPL Powerlines has warned that without a continued programme of electrification the current workforce will move away seeking opportunities elsewhere. The consequences of that loss of skills and expertise are a hike in costs when schemes are eventually re-started. Such a stop-start programme is highly inefficient and certainly not cost effective.
Replacement rolling stock
Coupled with the need for a continuing programme of electrification is the need to procure appropriate rolling stock to comply with the decarbonisation agenda. The current fleet of diesel trains running in Scotland is one of the oldest in the UK and is becoming increasingly unreliable.
At the Railway Industry Association conference on 3 September Cabinet Secretary Fiona Hyslop announced that a procurement exercise will begin to replace the oldest diesel trains – the High Speed Train fleet. This was accompanied by a press release from Transport Scotland which caused some confusion as it was not clear whether the intention was to procure new bi-mode trains or replacement diesel trains. Over two months later there has been no progress although the most recent Scotrail Stakeholder newsletter stated that “a commercial tender will be issued in the coming weeks”.
HS2
Since the decisions taken by the former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak the future of the HS2 project has been uncertain. What remained – a new line from Birmingham Curzon Street to Old Oak Common made little sense in isolation. Indeed, the National Audit Office in its latest report warns the cancellation of sections north of Birmingham means capacity issues on the West Coast Main Line will not now be addressed. This may lead to having to manage the demand for rail travel rather than incentivising it.
The clear rationale for HS2 should always have been to free capacity on the classic routes for more local passenger and freight services and to help rail replace short-haul flights, particularly those from Central Scotland to the London airports. Journey times of three hours from Edinburgh and Glasgow to London were envisaged and promoted at meetings between Scottish and UK Transport Ministers all made possible by use of new high speed lines and upgrades to classic routes to Scotland.
We supported this concept and played an active part in the Scottish High Speed Rail Stakeholder Group. Unfortunately Transport Scotland senior officials instructed that work on the joint DfT/Transport Scotland “North of HS2 to Scotland” Business case should cease to enable the strategic case for High Speed Rail in Scotland to be considered as part of the Second Strategic Transport Projects Review (STPR2).
Whilst the STPR2 subsequently concluded that Transport Scotland should continue to work with the Department for Transport on the development of High Speed Rail, the UK Government gradually reduced the scope and therefore potential of HS2 infrastructure being extended to Scotland. The Stakeholder Group itself thus withered away and while never formally disbanded has not met for some considerable time.
The decision by the new Government to proceed with tunnelling to Euston is certainly a step, however small, towards reviving and re-imagining the whole HS2 concept so that it delivers the capacity increases and journey time improvements so badly needed.There remains much to be done on creating routes north of Birmingham and the work undertaken by the West Midlands and Greater Manchester Mayors in addition to proposals from leading figures such as Chris Gibb may form the basis for the resurrection of the HS2 concept. Beyond that, there will be a need for the Westminster and Holyrood administrations to re-engage to ensure that Scotland achieves the benefits that a revived project will deliver.
Open access operations
Earlier this year we were pleased to welcome First Group owned Lumo as new members of Transform Scotland and look forward to them helping to further grow the modal share for rail on Anglo-Scottish routes. In addition to the existing services from Edinburgh to London they have submitted an application to extend Lumo services beyond Edinburgh to Glasgow Queen Street via Falkirk High.
Beyond that First Group has now purchased Grand Union Trains who have track access rights to operate four return services per day between Stirling and London Euston travelling via Motherwell and avoiding Glasgow. We expect further announcements including details of the rolling stock to be used by the end of the year. These new services expand First Group’s family of Open Access operations which includes Hull Trains and there are ambitions for further operations in England.
Light rail
Glasgow Subway and Clyde Metro
New trains manufactured by Stadler have successfully been introduced on the Glasgow Subway. Still to come are signalling upgrades and half height platform screen doors all leading to the trains becoming ‘driverless’.
Strathclyde Partnership for Transport is also leading the development of the case for the proposed Clyde Metro.
Edinburgh Trams
Edinburgh Trams celebrated their 10th birthday in May 2024, the original tram route having been extended to Newhaven in June 2023. This has been reported as leading to a doubling in passenger numbers and the trams continue to win awards in Scotland and at a UK level.
It is notable that large numbers of new flats and houses are being built along the route – especially in the Leith and Newhaven areas proving once again that new public transport routes aid development which, in turn, helps to create more sustainable travel patterns. Edinburgh Council will be consulting in the new year on the preferred routes for further tram extensions.
Unfortunately the current system is not operating at maximum efficiency as the traffic signals along the route are not affording trams the correct priority at junctions. It is to be hoped that all parties working on this issue resolve the problem as a matter of urgency.
Highlands & tourism
Far North Lines
The Far North Lines from Inverness to Wick and Thurso plus the route to Kyle of Lochalsh are almost exclusively single track with a limited number of passing loops. This restricts capacity on the routes for passenger and freight operations and can lead to serious delays and cancellations in the event of late running trains.
There has long been a proposal for a passing loop on a former section of double track at Delmore west of Inverness. Sadly, despite numerous feasibility studies, reviews and reports there is still no progress on the ground with this fairly simple piece of engineering on land which remains in railway ownership.
Our member group the Friends of the Far North Line do stirling work promoting the route and the railway in general but remain enormously frustrated by the lack of progress here. For them and regular travellers a small crumb of comfort is promised by Scottish Futures Trust who plan to deliver faster broadband on the route by means of a year-long trial. The Trust believes the move is “liable to deliver the best Wi-Fi experience on any train service in the country”.
West Highland Lines
Platform extensions have been taking place at a number of stations on the West Highland Lines to allow seven coach trains to operate. This should create more opportunities to use the active travel coaches as well as providing extra capacity on the trains on these world famed routes.
New rolling stock for these and other scenic routes would certainly help to attract more tourists to Scotland but when that might be delivered remains unclear.
Private leisure services
What is abundantly clear when considering railway routes to and within Scotland is the attractiveness of these routes to the private companies offering rail services to leisure travellers. These are often premium priced, offering quality on board dining and focussed on journeys on our many scenic routes or to our cities, Edinburgh in particular.
There is clearly a large market for rail tourism and it would be good to see this promoted with the same energy and vigour by the bodies who have put so much effort into promoting road journeys on the North Coast 500.
In summary
We must see urgent action to accelerate decarbonisation of Scotland’s railway and to refocus efforts on ensuring HS2 delivers tangible benefits for passengers and freight north of the border.
While we welcome progress such as the reopening of the Leven line and electrification work on the East Kilbride Line, delays in advancing broader electrification plans and replacing outdated rolling stock threaten to derail momentum towards a greener and more efficient railway.
We urge the UK and Scottish governments to collaborate closely to secure an integrated rail network that prioritises sustainability, capacity growth, and economic connectivity.
