In the two years since it was nationalised, how successful has public ownership of ScotRail been? And with national identities in the balance, what can the way that the people and the government treat ‘fundamental’ services tell us about the way things are run?
At the start of Laszlo Krasznahorkai’s novel, The Melancholy of Resistance, the experience of waiting for a delayed train summons the following reflection:
“…rail travel, like everything else, was subject to the prevailing conditions: all normal expectations went by the board and one’s daily habits were disrupted by a sense of ever-spreading all-consuming chaos… there was nothing anyone could do except to get a tenacious grip on anything that was still tangible.”
The contingency and dislocation foisted upon us by the strange experience of delayed travel is probably familiar to most rail users.
But there are some who believe that even in an economic sense, the ‘tangible’ matters of travel can be tenaciously gripped to the betterment of these services.
Jim Phillips, Professor of Economic and Social History at the University of Glasgow, says that “there is a kind of fundamental importance of rail travel to economic life, social life.”
And that might be especially well demonstrated in Scotland. In April 2022, Scotrail moved back into public ownership, becoming what is known as an ‘operator of last resort’, after the failure of private Dutch firm Abellio, a loss-making company that failed to meet the Scottish Government’s expected standards of service.
Professor Phillips believes that there is an overwhelming logic behind the nationalisation of public services in Scotland, especially ScotRail:
“Public ownerships tend to take one of three obvious fundamental lines: either there’s a fundamental problem that can’t be fixed through private ownership, or there is a fundamentally important sector around which lots of other things are organised, and the good performance of that sector is central to other elements in the economy. Or there’s a kind of fundamental set of social values which are advanced through public ownership.”
But has it been a success?
The numbers.
In terms of raw numbers, there seem to be indicators that the service is improving.
A spokesperson for Transport Scotland said:
“Since ScotRail moved into the public sector, we’ve added over 200 additional services each weekday, offering 7% more seats. Passenger numbers have increased by 75% from 46.7 million in 2021/22 to around 82 million in 2023/24.
“ScotRail now employs 400 more people than it did prior to public sector ownership, with the Travel Safe Team in particular seeing its numbers triple.”
As the chart below shows, ScotRail is expanding the availability of trains and seats across Scotland.
There have been setbacks for the operator, not least the total ScotRail has handed out in compensation to customers – £1.5 million, according to information obtained by The Herald.
However, it is reportedly understood that £1 million in claims were made due to issues outwith the operator’s control. This might not help us identify how a successful project ScotRail is, but evident increases in seats and services being run do suggest that improvement is being made.
Servicing the public.
In the view of Macy Keel, 19, a student at Stirling University who is spending her summer at home in Glasgow, however, the service is still not being run to a satisfactory level:
“You’d think for the price they charge it would be a better service.”
Pressed about her opinions on the quality of service, Macy said: “It’s rubbish, it’s unreliable. I don’t think the trains are as bad, it’s just the actual time.”
She was more positive about the prospect of nationalisation in general, but added that there is still a disconnect between the idea and the reality:
“Yes, I think it’s a good thing, if it creates a difference. For public services, you’d want them to be owned by the government, in terms of the taxes going to them, they could improving the network, it’s for the better. In terms of that, sounds great. Practically, who knows?”
Cameron, who commutes into Glasgow from East Kilbride Monday to Friday and doesn’t think that the service has improved since ScotRail was nationalised, says that “it’s hit or miss sometimes. This morning, I had to go a ways to get in.
“I only take one line. They are doing works on it, but I’ve still not seen any improvements in two years.”
Several travellers outside Glasgow Central station said that prices and cancellations were frustrating them, but services were improving.
Will time tell?
On the whole, Professor Phillips says, “short of evidence that it’s been a failure, it’s been a success.”
Many members of the public are less enthusiastic, however, and the jury likely remains out. What Chinese statesman Zhou Enlai told Kissinger in the 1970s in response to a question about the French Revolution, almost certainly seems to apply: “It’s too early to say.”
A spokesperson for Transport Scotland said there were ambitious plans for ScotRail in the medium- to long-term:
“In the longer term, over the coming 15 years or so, we plan to replace around 65 per cent of our trains to deliver on the Scottish Government’s green agenda, presenting a real opportunity to procure trains that meet the needs of our passengers.”
But perhaps it is prevailing conditions that will dictate what ScotRail’s future looks like. There is also now the prevailing question of whether it can serve as a model for the rest of Britain.
Looking at the UK, Professor Phillips is confident that if the Labour party comes into power and manages to endure two terms, ScotRail’s assumption into public ownership will be followed by the rest of the country:
“I think…there’s a very strong possibility that the existing private operators will be phased out and those services passed into public ownership.”
The opening of The Melancholy of Resistance – that “rail travel, like everything else, was subject to the prevailing conditions” – echoes. And as prevailing conditions seem destined to shift in Scotland, as well as across Britain, we could see the ScotRail model of public ownership become the standard across Britain.
