Abellio To Lose ScotRail Franchise Three Years Early
The title of this post is the same as this article on Rail Magazine.
This is the introductory paragraph.
The ScotRail franchise managed by Abellio will end in March 2022 – some three years earlier than planned, Scottish Transport Secretary Michael Matheson confirmed on December 18.
I don’t live in Scotland, so perhaps I shouldn’t comment too strongly.
- When I’m in Scotland, I find the performance of ScotRail little different to Greater Anglia, which is also managed by Abellio.
- In the last three or four years, I have only suffered serious delays a couple of times on Greater Anglia and one was severe weather-related and the other was the usual suspects trying to steal the overhead wires.
- In that period, I can’t remember being delayed seriously in Scotland.
- I was also in Scotland for the Commonwealth Games and the rail service coped well with all the visitors.
But Scotland has suffered more than its fair share of Network Rail and train delivery problems.
- Late delivery of electrification.
- Poor design of the Borders Railway.
- Problems with the new Class 385 trains from Hitachi.
- Problems with the delivery of the Inter7City trains.
- Disruption caused by the rebuilding of Glasgow Queen Street station.
Is another factor, the endorsement of the SNP in the recent General Election?
I have a feeling that this enforced divorce will be a pension pot for lawyers.
The Anonymous Widower 
There not losing it three years early there Tansport Scotland just arent exercising the extension option. Albeillo might be grateful given the financial car crash that is GA
Personally given there circumstances i feel they do a great job.
Comment by Nicholas Lewis | December 21, 2019 |
As I said, I have no complaints with either company. I am a regular user of GA, as you can see from this blog. I do feel that they are suffering from inadequate train testing facilities on Europe, as are many train companies in the UK and Europe.
Comment by AnonW | December 21, 2019 |
True customer service is shown by how well you manage and recover from problems, whether these are of your own making or not.
This is where Abellio/GA are really failing currently, even prior to new trains (e.g. when trains on Bittern line were cancelled for a bit in the Autumn due to heavy rains).
Comment by MilesT | December 22, 2019 |
I use GA a lot to go to the football at Ipswich and on the main line, I’ve not found them lacking in two serious incidents in eight years.
But when I moved to Dalston, they were running the Lea Valley Lines. When they went to London Overground customer service got a lot better.
I always put this down to Morth East London being a long way from Senior Management in Norwich. But could it have been down to concentrating on London Norwich services, which must be much bigger money earners?
By the way, I put the problems with the 755s down to inadequate train testing, due to there not being enough test tracks. Everybody’s trains seem to be late into service all over Europe.
Comment by AnonW | December 22, 2019 |