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High Speed Trains (HSTs) meet the stringent safety requirements necessary to operate on the GB rail network.

The independent railway safety regulator confirms these trains remain safe to run, which was also confirmed by the Scottish Carmont Steering Group

Replacing the HSTs is recognised as a priority and work is underway now to identify the optimum replacement option.

Plans for decarbonisation of the Fife Circle are in development. It is expected this will be one of the next parts of the Scottish network to be decarbonised, after the current work to electrify the East Kilbride line. The scope of the work in Fife will be developed and appraised alongside consideration of new battery-electric trains.

Since 2022, ScotRail has been committed to developing a robust evidence base on which to inform future plans and investment on fares and ticketing. This has included obtaining customer insight to identify opportunities, testing and learning to encourage more customers to rail through short-term promotions, and a ticketing/retail review assessing a range of retail channels and ticketing options.

This is an operational matter for ScotRail.

This is an operational matter for ScotRail. The member may wish to contact ScotRail for this information.

ScotRail Trains has seen significant recovery in demand and positive growth in revenue during the transition from the pandemic during which it took over the operation of services.

The level of funding paid to ScotRail has therefore seen some reduction as a result of the on-going positive growth and recovery from the pandemic, although additional funding has been specifically provided to support the pilot removal of peak fares.

More widely, the Scottish Government’s total funding for Scotland’s railway system continues to increase and will be around £1.6bn in 2024/25.

Provision of digital rail ticket issuing services is an operational matter for ScotRail. ScotRail advises that mobile tickets are available for advance, single and return tickets, and progress is being made to make more tickets available digitally.

Transport Scotland publishes the results of all regulated procurements through contract award notices on the Public Contracts Scotland website. In addition to the award of contracts, we also apply this requirement to call-off contracts awarded under framework agreements including the contracts placed under Multiple Supplier Framework Agreement for Maritime Consultancy Services.

The last discussion between Transport Scotland and the Department for Transport took place on 18 January 2024. Transport Scotland was represented by Chief Executive Officer Alison Irvine.

I refer to previous answers to question S6W-19363 on 7 July 2023 and S6W-23734 on 4 January 2024. Following recent successful recruitment, the core CHFS3 team consists of 13 FTE staff. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .