ScotRail will be controlled by the Scottish government from April this year. Credit: Tara D from Pixabay.

Train operating company ScotRail is all set to become nationalised from 1 April 2022, marking an end to the Abellio franchise.

The announcement was made by the Scotland Transport Minister Jenny Gilruth in the parliament.

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Dutch company Abellio has been operating the franchise since 2015, but its contract was ended over poor performance.

Beginning from 1 April this year, ScotRail will be publicly owned and controlled by the Scottish government.

All ScotRail employees will migrate to the government-owned body.

Gilruth said: “Whilst that’s good news, it’s clear that much work still needs to be done – and in a collaborative way – to ensure the long term sustainability of rail operations in Scotland, to best meet the needs of the people we all represent.

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“I want to kick-start a National Conversation about what our new beginning for ScotRail should look like – an affordable, sustainable, customer focused rail passenger service in Scotland in a post pandemic world.”

The Transport Minister invited elected members and rail unions to participate in national conversation and discuss the future of rail services in Scotland.

Gilruth said that she is looking forward to work with women’s organisations and British Transport Police in order to improve and make the public transport system safe for women.

She also stressed on rail decarbonisation plans, stating that plans are on to decarbonise our railways entirely by 2035.

“To meet our climate change targets, and our aim of reducing car kilometres by 20% by 2030 – we need Scotland’s railways,” she noted.

Gilruth further said that the culture of publicly-owned ScotRail will be built on Fair Work First, which supports investment in staff development, a more inclusive workplace, and trade union recognition, among others.

In August last year, ScotRail said that it will reduce 300 rail services per day from its timetable.