Station buildings that are surplus to operational requirements provide opportunities to meet passenger or community needs. Since 2008 the Stations Community Regeneration Fund has helped deliver 15 projects for a wide range of purposes. ScotRail operates 347 stations, of which 138 are staffed. Two-thirds have online CCTV, and together they constitute a diverse network of suburban routes round Glasgow and Edinburgh, interurban ones linking the seven cities and rural ones in the South-West and the West and North Highlands, with 40 stations served also by the overnight Caledonian Sleepers to and from London. The last train operator to be privatised, the ScotRail franchise was held initially by National Express during 1997-2004 and by First since then and managed since 2006 by Transport Scotland, who introduced their own brand in 2008. Now daytime and Sleeper services are to be separately franchised from April 2015. Network Rail lease to ScotRail all stations in Scotland except Glasgow Central High Level, Edinburgh Waverley, Dunbar and Prestwick International Airport. These include several iconic stations — notably Wemyss Bay, Queen Street, Stirling and Cupar — and some problem locations such as Perth. Aberdeen and Gourock are noteworthy recent refurbishments, and Dundee is being rebuilt at street level. At Haymarket the new concourse brought into public use a week before Christmas 2913 offers a tenfold increase in circulating area, and Glasgow Queen Street will also be modernised for the Edinburgh Glasgow Improvement Programme which will electrify the main route between Scotland’s principal pair of cities. Historic survivals are distributed across the west, north and Fife but with very little in for example the Lothians. The portfolio is surprisingly dynamic: 69 stations have opened since 1984, initially on existing routes but with an increasing emphasis in the last decade on reviving disused ones. (Author/publisher)
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