It is a public operator of last resort (Operator of last resort, OLR) which will acquire the Scottish franchise on 1 April 2022, the Scottish Government has announced. On that date, Abellio, a subsidiary of Dutch Railways (NS), will cease operating Scottish trains on behalf of the Transport Scotland Agency. The new OLR will be 100%, with the ultimate goal of establishing an integrated public rail system in Scotland.

A year from now, Scotland will join three other operators of the last resort, who have since taken over the franchise on the entire channel LNER (June 2018) more Northern (March 2020), for the UK Department for Transport (DfT), and Transport for Wales Rail (Since last February), for the Wales Transport Organization Authority (TfW).

The current contract with Abelio since 2015, following the decision made in December 2019 to expire the 31 March 2022 deadline. According to the Scottish Government, a decision driven by poor quality of service and train cuts was to allow supply to experience a sharp increase with reopening of lines or stations, building new relationships and increasing frequencies. Finally, it is the Scottish Government, which has compensated for the decline in operating income due to low footfalls on Scotland and the Caledonian sleeper franchise (London night trains) since the start of the Kovid-19 epidemic. 452 million pounds (528 million euros) a year.

PL