05 December 2008
By David Scott in Edinburgh Scotland’s public transport agency is managing the franchise for passenger rail services effectively but there is room for improvement, a watchdog report has concluded. Audit Scotland said Transport Scotland, which was set up in 2006, had good arrangements in place for monitoring and managing First ScotRail services. But there was scope ‘to take more account of both passengers’ concerns and wider government priorities in the targets and measures that Transport Scotland uses’. It added that information about First ScotRail’s performance ‘could be more readily available to passengers’. The report, The First ScotRail passenger rail franchise, published on November 28, follows a study of how Transport Scotland is managing the rail franchise awarded to First ScotRail in 2004. It also examined the rail company’s performance and the awarding of a three-year extension to the franchise. Auditor general Bob Black said Transport Scotland secured a guaranteed investment of £73.1m from First ScotRail as part of the franchise extension and had put in place more demanding targets for aspects of service performance. He added: ‘However, there are some lessons to learn for managing the contracting process in relation to future franchises.’ First ScotRail – which will receive £2.5bn in government subsidy over the ten-year contract term – was doing a good job in running services, and service quality was good and improving in most areas, the report stated. The study found that since First ScotRail took over, delays were down, passenger numbers and satisfaction were up and the quality of service, both on trains and stations, had improved. However, Audit Scotland noted that Transport Scotland’s governance arrangements for the contract review process ‘could have been better’.
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