Ministerial Foreword
I am pleased to introduce our fleet transition strategy for Scotland’s railway. This has been developed in line with the commitment made within the Rail Services Decarbonisation Action Plan to review the progress that has been made towards decarbonising Scotland’s rail services, whilst acknowledging the challenges and opportunities that the Scottish Government and rail industry has faced since the plan was first published in 2020.
We continue to advance our rolling programme of electrification with three quarters of passenger journeys being made on electric trains. In December 2023, I was delighted to travel on the first electric passenger train from Glasgow Central to Barrhead. The completion of this project, early and on budget, was a significant milestone in our ongoing work to electrify Scotland’s railway. This journey continues and we are on track to complete the electrification and enhancement of the East Kilbride line in December this year, delivered with Scottish Government investment of over £143 million.
The Scottish Government already has a proven track record of modernising Scotland’s passenger services and we are committed to continuing with these service enhancements. As part of this, I have approved procurement to replace ScotRail’s InterCity fleet. This action will ensure the long-term reliability and resilience of our long-distance rail services which connect seven of Scotland’s major cities and which are a key driver for growing regional economies and providing access to leisure and cultural experiences.
On 5 September 2025, I announced that the Scottish Government is investing £342 million to electrify the Fife and Borders routes to facilitate the introduction of battery-electric trains. In conjunction with this, ScotRail has been authorised to procure the new battery-electric fleet required for Fife and Borders services, along with new electric trains for the Glasgow Suburban area. This investment will benefit 30% of Scotland’s passengers through the introduction of newer, more reliable and energy efficient trains.
This plan comes at a critical time for Scotland’s railway, particularly as two thirds of ScotRail’s passenger trains are approaching the end of their usable life. Our strategy recognises the need to replace our trains in order to sustain the resilience and reliability of our rail services, which is essential to encourage more people to make sustainable travel choices.
The Scottish Government has demonstrated its commitment to ensuring more people can access Scotland’s railway. I am proud that since 2020, we have delivered new stations at Reston, East Linton, Kintore, Inverness Airport and, most recently, at Cameron Bridge and Leven. These investments have connected more people to Scotland’s rail network, creating access to a range of employment, educational and cultural opportunities for local communities.
We have also taken bold action to make rail travel more affordable and attractive to passengers by permanently removing peak fares on all ScotRail services. This will enable more people to make long-term travel choices with certainty and strengthen the credentials of rail travel as an environmentally friendly alternative to car travel.
Bringing ScotRail and Caledonian Sleeper into public ownership has meant we can now deliver a railway which is run for the benefit of the people of Scotland. Already we have seen strong year-on-year increases in patronage with 84.7 million journeys made in 2024/25 which is up from 63.7 million in 2022/23 and 81.1 million in 2023/24. This represents a 33% increase in passengers in just over two years and we will work collaboratively with our delivery partners to ensure these numbers continue to grow.
We recognise that Scotland’s railway plays a central role in tackling the climate emergency. The transport sector overall remains the greatest contributor of greenhouse gas emissions in Scotland, and while the rail sector only contributes 1% of Scotland’s transport emissions, we know that rail travel only has a 2% modal share of all journeys in Scotland.
We are already taking action to improve the affordability and attractiveness of rail. It is imperative that we have a reliable and resilient fleet that caters to our passengers’ needs to ensure more people can benefit from their publicly-owned rail services, new stations, and a more affordable fare system. Our fleet transition strategy will support this while advancing the rail sector’s continuing work to become net zero by 2045.
This strategy outlines the journey we will take to introduce this new rolling stock to our rail network and how this will sustain the future reliability of our InterCity, Suburban and Rural services for the long term. I look forward to seeing how this journey continues to evolve, as we work with our delivery partners to provide a rail system that is operationally, financially, and environmentally sustainable and delivers for the people of Scotland.
Fiona Hyslop MSP
Cabinet Secretary for Transport