Scotland eager for more charters

Scotland is “open for business” to attract more charter trains in the future.

Bill Reeve, Director of Rail at Transport Scotland, said there are specific agreements in place with ScotRail to help promote the use of charters.

“Written in our ScotRail franchise agreement is that they can flex their services to allow charters to run,” he said.

“On the Borders Railway, ScotRail is required to change the timetable at its own cost, so that’s a free railway for charters. We see it as economically rational to cancel a couple of lightly used diesel services in the off-peak to make way for a heavily loaded charter train.”

Reeve added he intends to keep Scotland free of European Train Control System until such a time that “the question of cost-effective fitment to heritage traction is resolved”.

At the moment, the only train that regularly runs in Scotland that doesn’t require a subsidy from the Scottish Government is West Coast Railways’ Jacobite charter, which runs daily between Fort William and Mallaig from May through to October.

“We would love to see a regular operation on the Far North Line. I think there are lots of opportunities - we would like to see more on the Borders Railway as well as capitalising on new tourist attractions such as the new V&A in Dundee,” Reeve concluded.