This article looks at why fleet strategy matters and what it could mean for Scotland’s rail future. Scotland’s Railway is a combined effort between ScotRail and Caledonian Sleeper (under Scottish Rail Holdings) and Network Rail, as organisations receiving strategy, specification, and funding from Transport Scotland, the transport agency of the Scottish Government, together with trains from English Train Operating Companies (Avanti, CrossCountry, LNER, and Lumo), the freight sector in Scotland, and the Scottish rail industry supply base.
For some years, the Scottish Government has recognised that ScotRail and Network Rail are funded separately but from the same pot, so the overall profit and loss account only comes together on the civil servant’s desk in Transport Scotland. Therefore, Transport Scotland has encouraged collaborative working between ScotRail and Network Rail and specifies its aligned and integrated requirements to the former through a Grant Agreement and Scotland’s own High level Output Specification to the latter.
There has been consistency of strategy, and teamwork between organisations is encouraged and valued. It is reported as being as easy as A-B-C:
- Alignment of objectives between operator and infrastructure manager with the strategic objective of the Scottish Government
- Building the capability of the staff and the railway, and being
- Competitive – attractive services delivered efficiently recognising that customers have alternatives.
All of this has delivered efficiency including, for example, electrification around 30% cheaper per single track kilometre than in England, and signalling delivered more efficiently too. Scotland’s railway has some big opportunities ahead. With much of ScotRail’s fleet ageing, passenger habits changing and pressure growing to decarbonise transport, the decisions made now will shape the network for decades to come.
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