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Rail unions welcome Scottish government action to bring ScotRail services into public ownership

Scotland editor RAIL unions and opposition politicians have welcomed Scottish government action to bring ScotRail services into public ownership.  Transport Secretary Michael Matheson told the Scottish Parliament today that a publicly owned operator of last resort will run the franchise from March 2022.  Mr Matheson said that staff will transfer to the new employer with their terms and conditions protected. The SNP minister reiterated calls for the full devolution of rail powers, adding the government’s preferred option for the future was an “integrated public-sector” model.  The decision was welcomed by the rail unions, which have long called for public ownership. 

Scotland s railways to be nationalised next year

He said the government was drawing up further emergency agreements with both ScotRail and the troubled Caledonian Sleeper franchise from April to September amid the fallout of the Covid pandemic, with support estimated to cost £173.1m. Train services had been underwritten by the Scottish government under emergency contracts since last March, but calls for nationalisation by transport campaigners and unions had long predated the pandemic. The Scottish government announced in 2019 it would enforce an early break clause in Abellio’s original 10-year franchise after years of poor performance and industrial disputes. Unions welcomed the news. Kevin Lindsay, Aslef’s organiser in Scotland, said: ‘We welcome the beginning of the end of the failed franchise system here in Scotland. Never again should people’s railway ever be in the hands of the privateers.”

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