Scottish ministers hit out at major revamp of UK's rail network

A political row is brewing over plans to reshape Britain's rail network.

A new state-owned organisation is going to take care of everything from track management to timetables.

UK Transport Secretary Grant Shapps says it will make for more accountability when things go wrong.

He told Sky News: "It will run all the different aspects of the railway in order to bring the whole thing together. It's three years to the week since that disastrous timetable change in May 2018, where the entire system melted down.

"When people said 'who has got control of this?' The answer was no-one, no guiding mind... no fat controller looking after the railway. Today's reform takes care of that with a familiar brand, Great British Railways."

Private operators would continue to run services.

In Scotland, there are already plans for the Scottish Government to take over the running of the ScotRail franchise when the existing one ends.

But ministers are unhappy about today's announcement.

A spokesperson for the Scottish Government told Kingdom FM: "Our view remains that a public sector controlled, aligned and better integrated railway will deliver for Scotland’s economy and its communities.

"Full devolution of our railways is necessary to ensure that we can deliver the high performing and responsive services that Scotland’s communities and its economy deserves.

"We have made these points strongly and repeatedly to the UK Government, which has chosen to ignore the views of Scottish ministers who fund Scotland’s Railway.

"The Scottish cabinet has only just been appointed and this white paper will affect Scotland's Railway, yet the Scottish Government has not been consulted on what is now published.

"In terms of the reference to a  ‘single, accountable national leadership’ there is no mention of Scotland in these details, and it is not clear how these proposals will respect the established and successful devolved responsibility for railways in Scotland.

"Ministers will therefore take time to consider its details and what this means for the future of Scotland’s Railway before giving further comment."