ScotRail says it still has ‘issues’ with Edinburgh to Glasgow line improvements

IT will be 2019 before all journeys on the flagship Edinburgh to Glasgow rail line are cut to 42 minutes, ScotRail’s boss has said.

Managing director Alex Hynes said that while the train operator would “like to deliver” that time from December, it “wouldn’t be every service at 42 minutes”.

Travellers have been promised quicker journey times between Edinburgh Waverley and Glasgow Queen Street as part of the Edinburgh Glasgow Improvement Programme (EGIP).

But the project, originally costed at £742 million, has been hit by numerous delays.

It has also emerged the new refurbished high speed trains ScotRail is delivering are unlikely to be up and running by the contractual date in June.

Mr Hynes told MSPs a delay in refitting the vehicles meant it was his “aspiration” that the first of the new trains would begin service in July.

However he stressed he was “not in a position to give a firm date” for this.

Mr Hynes told the Scottish Parliament’s Rural Economy and Connectivity Committee: “Originally we wanted to go above and beyond the contractual date of June to deliver something for the timetable change in May.

“Sadly that is now looking unlikely but we’re working to bring that first refurbished train as soon as we can.”

ScotRail is hoping to introduce the first of the refurbished Great Western railway fleet into service on the Aberdeen to Edinburgh route “very shortly”, he said.

Mr Hynes added: “It’s my aspiration that we put the first train into service in July but that is contingent upon the heavy overhauler producing me a train which is fully refurbished.”

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He also told MSPs there were still two outstanding issues with the new electric Hitachi trains which will run between Waverley and Queen Street.

While the line has now been electrified, Mr Hynes said: “Our services are not fully electric yet, that’s why we need to finalise the testing of the new Hitachi fleet so we can convert that route to full electric operation and that will enable us to cut the journey time even further and increase the number of seats.”

The ScotRail boss continued: “There is two outstanding issues with the Hitachi trains, one is the windscreen and the other is the train’s software.

“During the testing programme we uncovered an issue with the windscreen which saw some slight double imaging at night, which is clearly a safety issue and so Hitachi has been working with its windscreen suppliers on an alternative design.

“Those alternative design windscreens are being fitted to the train this week, we will then bring the train to Scotland and retest it. Initial indications are that that windscreen is much better than its predecessor.”

In addition work is being doing to reduce the “number of software issues so the software is reliable enough for us to enter into passenger service,” he said.

Mr Hynes told MSPs: “We’re expecting to introduce the Hitachi trains in the coming months.

“In terms of the journey time we would like to deliver 42-minute journeys on the brand new electric trains for this December.

“It won’t be every service at 42 minutes for this December, that comes the following year, but that is our aspiration. Clearly that is dependent on having the rolling stock from Hitachi to deliver.”

He hinted that when the new trains are running, more work could potentially be done to reduce journey times even further.

He said: “It’s my aspiration we do some line speed enhancement on that route to cut the journey time even further because these brand new electric trains reach 100 miles per hour in half the time of a diesel train and the drivers are having to throttle back.

“The train performance is outstripping that of the infrastructure, and I’ve said let’s be bold and let’s be ambitious and see what can be done to exploit the full performance of the train, because it is impressive.”