Analysis: Committee plays it safe and backs railway stability

WHEN the current ScotRail franchise runs out in 2014, it will be 20 years since the last Conservative government began the break-up and sell-off of British Rail.

Although rail privatisation hasn’t quite turned out to be the “poll tax on wheels” that some of its opponents suggested, the privatised railway is an expensive, complex and largely unloved beast.

The Scottish Government finds itself in a difficult position with ScotRail. Since most aspects of rail were devolved in the mid-2000s, Scotland is responsible for setting the terms and funding of the franchise. In these straitened times, the imperative is to reduce the sizeable £750 million that we spend on the railway each year.

But what the Scottish Government cannot do is decide to find savings by organising the railway differently – it’s stuck with a franchise model and regulatory system determined in London. There is considerable speculation that ministers would like to try out something different in Scotland, perhaps the so-called “vertical integration” option of combining the ScotRail train operator and Network Rail, the infrastructure provider, into a single company to save money and improve performance.

Enter the Scottish Parliament’s infrastructure and capital investment committee’s report on the next ScotRail franchise, published today. The report skirts around the more difficult questions of railway structure and finance. Instead, the committee seems to have been convinced by industry sirens arguing that stability is the order of the day, that the current system be preserved and longer franchises be offered so that private operators can plan ahead more effectively.

• Iain Docherty is professor of public policy and governance, University of Glasgow