Abellio ScotRail

Abellio ScotRail is a future train operating company in Scotland owned by Abellio that will commence operating the ScotRail franchise on 1 April 2015.

History
In November 2013, Transport Scotland announced Abellio, Arriva, FirstGroup, MTR Corporation and National Express had been shortlisted to bid for the new franchise. In October 2014, the franchise was awarded to Abellio. The franchise will operate for seven years with an option to extend for a further three years.

Services
Abellio will take over all of the services currently operated by First ScotRail on 1 April 2015, except for the Caledonian Sleeper services, which will transfer to a separate franchise operated by Serco.

Stations
Abellio ScotRail will operate 346 stations in Scotland. Not included are Glasgow Prestwick Airport station owned and operated by the airport, and Edinburgh Waverley and Glasgow Central managed by Network Rail. Abellio ScotRail will also operate Lockerbie but operate no services via the station, and take over Dunbar, currently operated by East Coast at a to be determined date.

Rolling stock
Abellio ScotRail will commence operating with the rolling stock below transferred from First ScotRail:

Abellio ScotRail will introduce a fleet of 46 three car and 24 four car Hitachi AT200 electric trains from December 2017, to operate services on the lines being electrified as part of the Edinburgh to Glasgow Improvement Programme, if it granted a three year optional franchise extension, it will order a further 10 four car units. It will also introduce 27 refurbished High Speed Trains by December 2018 on longer distance services between Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Inverness.

Depots
Abellio ScotRail's fleet will be maintained at Edinburgh Haymarket, Glasgow Eastfield, Glasgow Shields Road, Corkerhill and Inverness depots.