THE long-awaited tender for the ScotRail franchise was finally published last week, officially firing the starting gun for the race to control Scotland's railways for the next 10 years, starting from 2015.

So far names touted have included Arriva, Serco, Virgin, Abellio, National Express and, of course, incumbent FirstGroup, which looks to be making pretty tight margins on the service at the moment. According to the tender notice, it achieved an operating profit of about £25 million in 2011-12, a margin of around 4%. And that's after you account for the fact that turnover is near-doubled by Government subsidies and that passenger numbers are up 30% since the franchise started in 2004 (despite the sky-high ticket prices).

Notable is the reference to WiFi access and smart ticketing, which are to be delivered across Scotland "during the franchise term".

Does this mean that 2024 would be permissible for completing work that is currently finally being started on certain trains? Let's hope not, especially for WiFi, the lack of which on Scottish train carriages has been something of a national embarrassment in recent years.

ONE of Scotland's best known but least visible leisure barons is Stefan King, head of G1 Group, which owns a string of swanky bars and hotels, principally in Glasgow and Edinburgh.

Agenda notes that the group's auditors PKF resigned last week saying, "there are no circumstances connected with our ceasing to hold office ... which we consider should be brought to the attention of members or creditors of the company".

With G1 seeking to build on last year's £6.5 million pre-tax profit but labouring under debts of £89m, one hopes that all is well for the publication of this year's accounts in the autumn.