Railway Byelaws

Throughout the meetings, it was highlighted that the national Railway Byelaws regulate Scotland’s railway, and while these are reserved to the UK Government, the Scottish Government can request an amendment to the existing rules. The Group agreed that this review of enforcement powers could provide an opportunity to understand the effectiveness of the exiting Railway Byelaws.

This included:

• Strengthening Part 4 of the Byelaw on prohibiting intoxicating liquor to replicate Merseyrail’s own Byelaws.
• Investigate amending Part 24 on Enforcement to include a Withheld Implied Permission element, which could serve as a more streamlined way to establish a rail specific banning order.
• Investigate whether we can devolve powers to identified ScotRail staff to issue a FPN for identified breaches of the Railway Byelaws, as similar to the power to issue penalties under the Local Authority Byelaws in Scotland.