Transport Minister, Derek Mackay, today announced a “revolution in rail” in Scotland, which will deliver the largest programme of benefits to rail passengers seen in a generation.
ScotRail will introduce 200 new services, providing 20,000 more seats per day, with passengers across Tayside, Stirlingshire, Perthshire, Aberdeenshire and the Borders set to feel the benefits.
This represents a significant enhancement to ScotRail’s current timetable, which currently runs 2,300 services per day.
Timetable improvements are made possible by the decision by the Scottish Government to retain 13 additional Class 170 diesel trains (39 additional carriages) beyond the terms of their current leases, which were due to end on 2018. These extra trains create the capacity to make timetable service improvements – with input supplied by local stakeholders to finalise the best fit to local priorities.
More rolling stock will allow ScotRail to run more frequent services both for commuters and city to city passengers, whilst the increased flexibility it offers result in significant time savings on popular routes.
From 2018 there will be more services confirmed for Tayside, Stirlingshire, Perthsire Aberdeenshire. There will also be increased peak capacity across Fife and the Borders, relieving some of the pressure on commuter services, along with more commuter options linking local towns between Glasgow and Edinburgh via Cumbernauld and Falkirk.