DUTCH rail firm Abellio is expected to be named tomorrow as winner of the next £2.5 billion ScotRail franchise, industry sources have told The Scotsman.
The offshoot of Dutch national railways will take over the Scottish Governments biggest contract to run most of the countrys trains for ten years from next April.
Current operator FirstGroup had been among five shortlisted bidders, along with National Express, Arriva and Hong Kong operator MTR.
Abellio operates three rail franchises in England, including Merseyrail and Northern Rail, which it jointly runs with Serco, which will run the Caledonian Sleeper - also from April.
One source said: Its 100 per cent Abellio.
Another said: They have been out and about with an air of confidence. All the talk has been about them.
The firm have been the most mentioned of the five bidders in industry circles pretty much since the shortlist was announced last November.
Abellio was also the first to announce its interest in the franchise a year earlier, when UK managing director Dominic Booth said its experience and enormous pool of expertise well positioned it to run the franchise.
He added: Northern Rail in particular shares many of the characteristics of the ScotRail service.
Rail boom
ScotRail has seen a boom in rail travel since the current franchise started ten years ago, with passenger numbers increasing by one third to 87 million in the year to March.
This is expected to continue to grow with further rail expansion, such as the re-opening of the Borders line next September, and longer and faster trains on the main Edinburgh-Glasgow route from 2016-19.
The Scottish Governments Transport Scotland agency would say only that transport minister Keith Brown will make a major transport announcement at Waverley Station in Edinburgh tomorrow morning.