ScotRail - New app / website booking engine from 30 July 2026

[davp]

I feel sorry for anyone reliant on Flexipass and thus stuck using the app.

On that subject, the ScotRail website claims you can load to smartcard via the app. Have they added this functionality to the new app or is the website out of date?

They haven't updated the website. The app has no smartcard functionality.

Looking at the new website flow for Flexipass (which is only deliverable via the website to the app) they link to the Flexi Season T&Cs. Differences include they are single tickets not returns, and there is no permitted break of journey.

 

[styles]

That seems to be common.

BBC Sounds had many of the problems that iPlayer Radio had had, but had fixed years previously. It's now a good app, but took perhaps a year to get where the old one had been.

LNER still don't allow the purchase of more than one ticket (unless it's two advances as a return between the same two stations) in one transaction, something I'd been doing for years on the old system and that they told me would return last summer.

I feel there's a bit of a distinction to be made here as well though. If the BBC Sounds app is poor then it's unfortunate but ultimately not that critical. In fact I find most TV watching apps to be buggy even now.

The selling of rail tickets is meant to be fairly tightly regulated and if retailers get it wrong then that can be costing people money such as in the example @kkong posted.

That's to say, an MVP for rail tickets apps is arguably a higher bar than for example an MVP for a radio app or the NYT puzzles app.

Clearly ScotRail left it much too late to get the work done. If they'd got the development and internal testing done earlier they could've picked up a lot of issues and they could've also then considered some public testing where passengers themselves could've had both apps for a short while, reported issues but had the old one as a backup so they weren't really losing out so to speak.

If this was all done in 2 months then it's far from the worst bit of engineering I've seen so I probably wouldn't criticise the development team too much, but ScotRail as their client have not managed it well and I wouldn't consider it an MVP given some of the serious bugs in it. Not being able to search for say Wick station without knowing the station code, or buying tickets and then the app immediately showing a "Missing tickets" error, or not being sold a split ticket journey comprised of 4 Anytime Day Singles which over doubles the fare it should be are things they really needed to get right for it to be considered an MVP.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 15 Sep 2026 ==

They haven't updated the website. The app has no smartcard functionality.

Looking at the new website flow for Flexipass (which is only deliverable via the website to the app) they link to the Flexi Season T&Cs. Differences include they are single tickets not returns, and there is no permitted break of journey.

It's probably a bit moot anyway given the person I last know to have ordered a Smartcard earlier this year had to wait about a fortnight for it to arrive. I think I'd have just bought the Flexipass at a ticket office instead!

 

[Wallsendmag]

I feel sorry for anyone reliant on Flexipass and thus stuck using the app.

On that subject, the ScotRail website claims you can load to smartcard via the app. Have they added this functionality to the new app or is the website out of date?

You can buy from a ScotRail station can't you ?

 

[mcmad]

You can buy from a ScotRail station can't you ?

nope, the new platform in the ticket offices can't cope with flexipasses either. Supposedly TVM's can (I couldn't find it on the one I tried) and possibly on train staff can but given the £10 minimum fare introduced just in time I wasn't willing to risk that.

 

[Wallsendmag]

nope, the new platform in the ticket offices can't cope with flexipasses either. Supposedly TVM's can (I couldn't find it on the one I tried) and possibly on train staff can but given the £10 minimum fare introduced just in time I wasn't willing to risk that.

Thats so funny as we can retail them but they don't activate due to ScotRail having its own Smartcard infrastructure.

 

[kkong]

If this was all done in 2 months then it's far from the worst bit of engineering I've seen so I probably wouldn't criticise the development team too much, but ScotRail as their client have not managed it well and I wouldn't consider it an MVP given some of the serious bugs in it. Not being able to search for say Wick station without knowing the station code, or buying tickets and then the app immediately showing a "Missing tickets" error, or not being sold a split ticket journey comprised of 4 Anytime Day Singles which over doubles the fare it should be are things they really needed to get right for it to be considered an MVP.

ScotRail have released the app issue/bug tracker (from 20 May to 27 Jul 2026) [229 kB PDF]

Based on those dates, work was clearly ongoing in advance of contract signature (29 May 2026), so there was more than 2 months available before the launch date.

It seems there wasn't any acceptance test procedure, rather the testing seems to have been SilverRail firing out releases of the app and asking ScotRail to tell them what's wrong with it.

It's interesting to note that many items categorized as "must fix by launch" by ScotRail hadn't in fact been fixed by launch and several still weren't as of last week when I last looked.

I've not tried the latest version of the Android app (2.5.0, released 11 Sep 2026), which claims:

What's new:
- New date and time picker when searching for journeys.
- See earlier and later trains for your departure.
- Manage your consent preferences in the app.
- Save your payment cards for faster checkout.
- Includes several bug fixes and improvements.

What I find odd is: haven't SilverRail already developed apps for other operators? If so, why not use the bones of those which were (hopefully) working, rather than starting all over again for ScotRail and getting so many of the basics wrong?

 

[CyrusWuff]

What I find odd is: haven't SilverRail already developed apps for other operators? If so, why not use the bones of those which were (hopefully) working, rather than starting all over again for ScotRail and getting so many of the basics wrong?

In most instances, I believe SilverRail only provide the Ticket Issuing System itself, with another developer creating the front-end.

 

[Adam Williams]

rather the testing seems to have been SilverRail firing out releases of the app and asking ScotRail to tell them what's wrong with it

I saw what this said before the edit

 

[kkong]

I saw what this said before the edit

Ha ha, not sure why that other company was on my mind!

ScotRail have also released the contract with SilverRail (with some redactions). [1.1MB PDF].

It does contain a fairly detailed section (Schedule 17) on how testing is to be conducted, which cannot possibly have been complied with, given the timescales and issues present at launch.

 

[Morayshire]

ScotRail app problems may not be fixed by end of the year, MSPs hear

Ongoing problems with ScotRail's new app may not be fixed by the end of the year.
About 3,000 complaints were made about the mobile system in its first 10 days of operation, with users experiencing a series of "glitches" that left them locked out of their accounts.
ScotRail's managing director Joanne Maguire told MSPs the company behind the app, SilverRail Technologies, made operating system changes "at short notice" before it went live.
Maguire said ScotRail was in daily contact with the firm, but declined to say whether they would be rectified before the end of the year.
SilverRail Technologies won an £83m nine-year contract to run the app.
More than 220,000 people downloaded the app on its 30 July launch day without a beta testing phase, which could have identified bugs.
ScotRail had switched its ticket booking platform from Trainline to SilverRail.
But users quickly identified a number of issues including journeys failing to appear in search results, season passes not activating and an inability to add a railcard or other discounts.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c39ep1y0gz3o
Hundreds of passengers posted complaints on social media.
Maguire said there had been "internal user testing" of the app, but there had not been the opportunity to test it with travellers.
She told the Scottish Parliament's transport committee ScotRail was "forensically examining" what could have been done differently before the launch.
But while she apologised to passengers for the current problems, she said there was no date for when fixes may be rolled out.
"The launch of the app hasn't been good enough and for that I apologise," she said.
"We know that day one wasn't good enough. We had significant challenges with log-ons and there have then been six other days when we've had challenges, and the service we have provided hasn't been good enough."
Maguire was asked by comitteee convener Willie Rennie MSP whether she was "confident" the app would be fixed by Christmas.
Maguire said: "I absolutely give this committee my commitment that we are working day in, day out and it will be as early as we possibly can."

The Scottish government scrapped peak rail fares in September last year in a bid to get more commuters out of cars and onto trains.
Prior to its launch, ScotRail said the new app would make the "customer experience simpler, faster, and more reliable".
Transport committee convener, Willie Rennie, told Maguire he had personal experience of issues with the app after a return ticket from Glasgow to Edinburgh did not show up.
He said staff at the station let him through the barrier, but he had seen others encountering similar issues.
Rennie said SilverRail, which also operates systems for a number of rail operators in England and Wales, had a "track record of having problems" with similar apps for other firms.
Maguire said SilverRail had been the only "compliant bidder" for the contract when it was put out for tender.
She added she had been "assured" the company had "learned from that and improvements had been made".

Words fail me...

 

[davp]

ScotRail was "forensically examining" what could have been done differently before the launch

there have then been six other days when we've had challenges,

She added she had been "assured" the company had "learned from that and improvements had been made".

I wish they would stop trying to PR manage this and just be transparent. They should start by publishing a set of known issues with a roadmap. If nothing else it will let folks know what is on their radar.

 

[kkong]

Nobody seems to have ScotRail asked the pertinent questions:

1. Why the contract was signed 6 months later than planned (and why did it take 2 years to get there).
2. Why was only one compliant tender submitted, and did this not give ScotRail pause for thought?

Edit: Actually question 2 has been asked today by Willie Rennie MSP, convener of the Transport Committee.

The exchange starts at 09:52:20 on the recording of today's committee session: https://www.scottishparliament.tv/meeting/transport-committee-september-16-2026

There is a stated commitment to review the procurement process in their lessons learned.

 

[Furrball]

That bug tracker makes pretty bad reading for SilverRail and Scotrail

So many fundementals that were just not working

Ammusing to see these two together! But somewhat surprising to see earlier/later option asa change/feature, which means it was not in the original spec

19/06/2026 10:50
19/06/2026 10:53
Ticket Booking Site
Change request / New feature or behaviour
No 'Later Trains' 'Earlier Trains' option in Search Results Must fix

19/06/2026 10:53
19/06/2026 10:55
Ticket Booking Site
Bug / Something isn't working
Split Tickets displayed when there are cheaper options (they shouldn't be) Should fix

 

[Adam Williams]

ScotRail have released the app issue/bug tracker (from 20 May to 27 Jul 2026) [229 kB PDF]

Some of these are so incredibly basic you can only assume the engineers involved had never actually used a GB train booking app themselves.

Some of them are also accreditation fails (where was RDG in all this?).

 

[Bungle965]

(where was RDG in all this?).

Hahahahahhahahahahahaha

sorry, was that a serious question?

 

[LocoCycle]

The app very helpfully shows all the arrivals are due to arrive at their destination.

 

[styles]

The app very helpfully shows all the arrivals are due to arrive at their destination.

Useless, I was only wanting to check the status of Schrodinger's arrival.

 

[Adam Williams]

sorry, was that a serious question?

I suspect the accreditation burden is different based on whether you're building something for a TOC or a TPR...!

Certainly it's taken up significant amounts of my time.

 

[kkong]

Some other points to note from Joanne Maguire's (ScotRail MD) evidence to the Transport Committee.

• A soft launch was not possible because the contract with Trainline (inherited from when Abellio held the franchise) gave them exclusive rights to ticket retailing. I find it difficult to believe that an accommodation could not have been reached for an orderly handover period.
• Everything was going well until less then 24 hours before the launch of the app (the bug tracker would suggest otherwise) when SilverRail "made a change to the operating system" (not sure what that means).
• SilverRail representatives were summoned to ScotRail HQ full-time, and some of them are still there now.
• Five tenders were received for the retail systems procurement, but SilverRail were the only "compliant" tender. Ms Maguire agreed with the suggestion that Trainline did not wish to bid or form a joint venture due to the inclusion of the station and on-train retail equipment and TVMs in the scope of work.

ScotRail also confirmed in an FoI response that "testing did not occur in the manner described", i.e. "following an acceptance test procedure or test suite for the App".

 

[PaxVobiscum]

Nobody seems to have ScotRail asked the pertinent questions:

1. Why the contract was signed 6 months later than planned (and why did it take 2 years to get there).
2. Why was only one compliant tender submitted, and did this not give ScotRail pause for thought?

Edit: Actually question 2 has been asked today by Willie Rennie MSP, convener of the Transport Committee.

The exchange starts at 09:52:20 on the recording of today's committee session: https://www.scottishparliament.tv/meeting/transport-committee-september-16-2026

There is a stated commitment to review the procurement process in their lessons learned.

Thanks for posting that, an interesting watch.
I’ve actually attended the odd meeting of the (rural affairs and) Transport Committee as an observer though not for some years. Always polite and businesslike but there are some pretty searching questions asked.

 

[35B]

Some other points to note from Joanne Maguire's (ScotRail MD) evidence to the Transport Committee.

• A soft launch was not possible because the contract with Trainline (inherited from when Abellio held the franchise) gave them exclusive rights to ticket retailing. I find it difficult to believe that an accommodation could not have been reached for an orderly handover period.
• Everything was going well until less then 24 hours before the launch of the app (the bug tracker would suggest otherwise) when SilverRail "made a change to the operating system" (not sure what that means).
• SilverRail representatives were summoned to ScotRail HQ full-time, and some of them are still there now.
• Five tenders were received for the retail systems procurement, but SilverRail were the only "compliant" tender. Ms Maguire agreed with the suggestion that Trainline did not wish to bid or form a joint venture due to the inclusion of the station and on-train retail equipment and TVMs in the scope of work.

ScotRail also confirmed in an FoI response that "testing did not occur in the manner described", i.e. "following an acceptance test procedure or test suite for the App".

I suspect that money is at the root of all this. In particular:

• No one was willing to pay Trainline to waive exclusivity during a handover period; and
• Not enough resource was put into managing the contract when it mattered, so warning signs that should have been picked up weren't and no real effrot was put into acceptance testing*

* - as an aside, it's amazing how many organisations say all the right things about acceptance testing and then can't actually get themselves organised to do it properly, either at design stage (i.e. being clear what will be tested for so that it can be built properly) or actually at the test stage.

 

[Haywain]

In particular:

• No one was willing to pay Trainline to waive exclusivity during a handover period;

I imagine Trainline would want to paid very handsomely to extend the contract, and even more so to waive exclusivity.

 

[35B]

I imagine Trainline would want to paid very handsomely to extend the contract, and even more so to waive exclusivity.

I suspect the extension would be less of an issue than waiving exclusivity - and in all honesty, I'd not blame any supplier for being concerned about split responsibility for a customer (thinking of helpdesk staffing, reputation, cashflow to name but three).

But the significance then is that the customer organisation needs to manage the hell out of the supplier during the transition period, both the exiting supplier and the incoming. Seamless transitions don't just happen - which Scotrail seem to have overlooked here

 

[Haywain]

I suspect the extension would be less of an issue than waiving exclusivity -

I disagree. Companies that know they've got you over a barrel almost always capitalise on it. An extra, say, 6 months based on the price of a 7 year contract priced up 7 years ago or a new standalone 6 month contract based on 2026 pricing?

 

[Adam Williams]

But the significance then is that the customer organisation needs to manage the hell out of the supplier during the transition period, both the exiting supplier and the incoming. Seamless transitions don't just happen - which Scotrail seem to have overlooked here

Yes, absolutely.

TIS supplier transitions can be done seamlessly with work, Raileasy went through one when it brought everything in-house. There were no threads here about it because it was invisible to customers. Booking history was maintained. Tickets were maintained. The refunds processes still worked. The apps stayed the same. User accounts were maintained, stored cards were maintained. The only thing you'd notice if you were particularly observant is fulfilments drastically speeding up, the E-Tickets looking less like they were thrown together in an afternoon, and ticket numbers starting with different prefixes.

It was only possible because there was enough technical foresight to have abstracted over the ultimate underlying ticketing provider, to control all the authentication and to control the frontends and what they talked to. That, and a desire to do it right. ScotRail left themselves at the mercy of their supplier by not doing anything themselves (still the case now) and not negotiating a proper transition with the suppliers involved.

as an aside, it's amazing how many organisations say all the right things about acceptance testing and then can't actually get themselves organised to do it properly, either at design stage (i.e. being clear what will be tested for so that it can be built properly) or actually at the test stage.

I think lots of them realise very quickly it's actually quite hard to do properly, particularly if you don't already have a QA team!

It's tedious to test the cases, it's tedious to write them up and keep on top of the supplier as they do (or don't) fix them. It has to be done though.

 

[35B]

I disagree. Companies that know they've got you over a barrel almost always capitalise on it. An extra, say, 6 months based on the price of a 7 year contract priced up 7 years ago or a new standalone 6 month contract based on 2026 pricing?

From a supplier side, I'm not sure I'd agree that's "over a barrel" when there are usually other terms that work the other way.

Either way, it's where good practice in outsourcing of both IT and business services is well established, and the fixes exist for organisations approaching the end of the contract and either bringing it in house or replacing it. As @Adam Williams observes, it's not difficult - more just tedious and boring, requiring close attention to detail.

The situation at Scotrail is frankly unbelievable, because they've seemed to sleepwalk into it without managing it at all. However Trainline and/or Silverrail handled themselves (and Silverrail at least do not emerge well here), the onus was on Scotrail to manage them effectively. If they didn't, it's either a failure by Scotrail or, if they weren't given the funds to do so effectively, their political masters.

 

[smsm1]

I know someone who is struggling with the new Scotrail app. Twice now they have bought a single when they thought they had bought a return. The old so used to default to return if you'd used that before so relearning the behaviour to select return will be hard.

 

[kkong]

I know someone who is struggling with the new Scotrail app. Twice now they have bought a single when they thought they had bought a return. The old so used to default to return if you'd used that before so relearning the behaviour to select return will be hard.

Or, like me, you just remove the ScotRail app icon from the home screen, so it doesn't come into your mind when you think of ordering train tickets.

The new app has indeed been defaulting to 2 x single tickets after you had already requested a return on the previous page.

 

[styles]

I know someone who is struggling with the new Scotrail app. Twice now they have bought a single when they thought they had bought a return. The old so used to default to return if you'd used that before so relearning the behaviour to select return will be hard.

Is there a particular feature of the app that they're needing to use that means they can't just ditch it and use a different app/retailer?

I know if it were me I'd have binned the app weeks ago unless I needed to buy their Flexi tickets or something.

 

[smsm1]

Is there a particular feature of the app that they're needing to use that means they can't just ditch it and use a different app/retailer?

I know if it were me I'd have binned the app weeks ago unless I needed to buy their Flexi tickets or something.

If the Scotrail Tap & Pay app covered a larger area including Stirling then they'd use that instead and it would auto calculate the best fare.

Not aware of a specific feature that's needed so I'll give a shot at trying to encourage them to use another app. I suspect the main issue is that not all apps support the e/m-tickets for Scotrail.