ScotRail’s hit the buffers but we’re on the right track

“Billions are paid over by the tax payer so surely that money should be paid back before any profits are allowed to be creamed off?”

Regular readers will know that I’m no fan of UK train operators, especially our very own First ScotRail.

They are anything but first in my book when it comes to value for money and comfort, but one of the first in the queue when it comes to racking their fares up way above inflation.

But even I was surprised to hear they had lost out on their £6bn franchise extension to Dutch state owned operators Abellio.

If the future for rail passengers is orange then for FirstGroup’s shareholders that future is now a salutary mix of deathly pinks and vomitous greens, given that this is their fourth UK franchise failure and they won’t now have an annual Scottish top up of £12 million to divvy up between them.

Still, don’t go stringing the violins for their fat controllers since 2008 they’ve managed to pocket a whopping £95 million of their £100 million profits, so it’s not as if they’re skint. Especially FirstGroup’s chief executive Tim O’Toole who, in 2012, trousered a massive £1 million bonus on top of his £846,000 salary.

If he ever misses playing choo-choo he could afford to buy Hornby and have a personal toy track laid around his grounds.

However, it must have taken quite a bit of Dutch courage from Scottish Transport Secretary Keith Brown to sideline Scotrail as they’ve been part of our subsidised transport network for as long as I can remember.

They might have the dubious hashtag of ‘#Scotfail’ but their branding, like RBS, is splattered everywhere no more so than when they recently sponsored Glasgow’s 2014 Commonwealth Games and gave anyone with a games ticket free train travel and everyone else the bum’s rush.

However, they are one of Scotland’s main employers with more than 4,000 employees who are concerned about their future.

Then of course there is the small matter of a foreign country (Holland) and its state owned and subsidised rail operator Netherland Rail, through its subsidiary Abellio, being allowed to make money with another country’s (Scotland) state subsidised and very profitable rail network to be taken on board.

A confusing decision that had many in the unions and those who want see our rail networks returned to being fully nationalised pulling their hair out.

Me? Well, as I’ve said before, I think this option should be looked at, but not if it means a return to the bad old days when the railways were haemorrhaging cash and blighted by industrial action, which would almost certainly happen if Ed Jellybam and his Red Tories ever got their hands on them.

What gets me all steamed up is why anyone is allowed to make such huge sums of money from a subsidised operation in the first place? Billions are paid over by the tax payer so surely that money should be paid back before any profits are allowed to be creamed off?

As I say, shunting First ScotRail aside in favour of Abellio could not have been an easy choice, but one, when all was said and done, that was the right decision.

Jobs, pensions and wages have all been guaranteed. As have cheaper tickets, better trains and a faster service. Scores of new apprenticeships and millions of pounds of investment have been promised and for all that Abellio should be given the contract and allowed the opportunity to make good on their word.

I wonder though now that they have won the Scottish franchise if Netherlands Rail will revert back to their old name NedRailways? I doubt it.