Inter-City 125 high speed train information: FOI release

Information requested

(a) How many former Inter-City 125 high speed trains were acquired and refurbished for Scotrail?

(b) What was the total cost of acquisition of these trains?

(c) What was the total cost of refurbishment of these trains?

(d) When did the refurbished trains enter service with Scotrail?

(e) When the refurbishment of these trains was being planned, what was their expected life expectancy?

(f) How many of these trains are still in service with Scotrail?

(g) What arrangements are in place for consultation on the types of trains to the Scotrail HST fleet and who will be consulted?

(h) Has any such consultation already taken place and, if so, with whom?

Response

Point A of your request

Abellio ScotRail leased 26 High Speed Trains (HST) which were fully refurbished. No HSTs were acquired.

Point B of your request

Abellio ScotRail did not acquire the High Speed Trains (HST) , these trains are under a lease agreement. With this in mind, the Scottish Government does not hold the information on cost of acquisition.

This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested,

Point C of your request

The previous Franchisee, Abellio ScotRail was responsible for the cost of the HST refurbishment, which was advised to the Scottish Government to be in the region of £54m.

Point D of your request

The Inter7City trains, went into service on Monday 5 October 2018.

Point E of your request

The refurbishment of the HST fleet was planned and procured by Abellio Scotrail Limited as ScotRail franchisee. At that time it was envisaged that they would have life expectancy to 2030.

Point F of your request

25 High Speed Trains are currently in ScotRail service - due to the Carmont accident in August 2020, during which, due to an infrastructure failure, one of HSTs was damaged beyond repair.

Point G of your request

ScotRail Trains Ltd will be carrying out an open procurement competition. ScotRail will be required to engage with a range of stakeholders and further information how ScotRail undertakes any open competitions can be found in the attached ScotRail Grant Agreement: ScotRailGrantAgreement- 24June2022_Published.pdf (railholdings.scot)

Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website(s) listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

Point H of your request

No consultation has taken place as the procurement competition has yet to commence.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.