A QUARTER of the UK’s privatised rail operations are back in the public sector on Friday, following the Scottish government’s takeover of Scotrail services from a failed privateer.

Scotrail has returned to public control after passengers suffered a catalogue of failures, including unreliable services and rising fares, at the hands of Abellio, a subsidiary of the Netherlands’ state-owned rail operator.

This takes the proportion of train services in public hands to 25 per cent, the highest percentage since the railways were privatised in 1994.

Scotrail joins East Coast Main Line services, which were taken back into public ownership from Stagecoach and Virgin in 2018; Northern, taken over from failed Arriva in March 2020; services in Wales, which were taken over by the Welsh government from a failed partnership involving Keolis and Amey; and the Southeastern franchise, which Govia lost last year after failing to declare £25 million that it owed the taxpayer.

These failures took place despite huge government funding. In 2020-21, total rail industry income was £20.7 billion, of which £16.9bn came from the taxpayer, according to the government’s Office for Road and Rail (ORR).

Rail unions united yesterday in condemning rail privatisation as an “expensive failure.”

Ahead of a day of action by the RMT union in Scotland today, general secretary Mick Lynch called on the Scottish government to “ensure that Scotland’s railway is sustainable, affordable, accessible and reliable and prioritises passengers, not profit.”

TSSA general secretary Manuel Cortes, whose union represents clerical and managerial workers on the railways, hailed the transfer of Scotrail to public ownership as a “watershed moment,” marking “the highest percentage of publicly run rail services since privatisation fragmented the network in the 1990s, reaching 25 per cent.”

He added: “Privatisation is an expensive failure.”

Kevin Lindsay, Scottish organiser of train drivers’ union Aslef, said: “Today is a momentous day. 

“Twenty-five years to the day since Scotrail was privatised, it is returning to its rightful place in the public realm.”

Cat Hobbs, director of the We Own It campaign for public ownership, said: “It’s clear that rail privatisation has been a colossal failure.

“Public ownership gives a real chance for a rail system that is fit for the 21st century and it offers a chance for passengers and workers to have a say in how our railways are run.”