A FORMER senior civil servant who quit his job after a major rail franchising row has been confirmed as the man who will run the Caledonian Sleeper franchise.

The contract for the sleeper, which connects Inverness, Fort William, Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow to London, was awarded to Serco in May by the Scottish Government.

Aberdeen-born Peter Strachan will be its managing director, with the franchise due to begin operating in April 2015 for 15 years.

More than £100 million will be invested in building 72 state-of-the-art carriages, part-funded by a £60m grant from the Scottish Government.

Mr Strachan comes from Serco's business in Australia where he led two key rail bids in Sydney. Prior to joining Serco in 2013, he was director-general of major projects for the Department for Transport (DfT), leading the UK Government's major rail and road capital projects including the London 2012 Olympics.

Two years ago Mr Strachan resigned from DfT in the wake of the West Coast Main Line controversy when the Government announced that Virgin had lost the right to run the lucrative line between London and Glasgow because its competitor FirstGroup was willing to pay far more. Virgin Boss Richard Branson successfully challenged the decision and it later emerged the DfT had miscalculated its sums.

Mr Strachan said: "I am delighted to be taking up the role of managing director for the Caledonian Sleeper service. As a Scot, it is a real privilege to have the opportunity to lead the transformation of our iconic sleeper service."

Mr Strathan was also a non-executive board member of Edinburgh city council's tram development firm TIE for five years until 2011.