A STUDY has estimated Scotland's largest train operator is worth around £1.5 billion to the economy.
Research by the respected economic think-tank Fraser of Allander Institute shows First ScotRail, which is responsible for 95% of train journeys in Scotland, enabled total employment of 59,615 people in 2012/13. This equates to an economic impact of £1.5bn.
The study found ScotRail now employs 4700 people - an increase of more than 35% since 2004 when FirstGroup took over the franchise from National Express - and supports £302.5 million in wages.
Moreover, each ScotRail job supports an additional 1.45 jobs elsewhere, and for every £1 paid to ScotRail employees, an additional £0.99 in wages is generated in Scotland.
Steve Montgomery, managing director of ScotRail, said: "Clearly, our primary role is to deliver the best possible train service for our customers, connecting the communities we serve, and it's gratifying to note that the extensive investment in people and technology we've made since 2004 is reflected in the significant performance improvements."
Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon added: "The results of the study show the important role ScotRail plays in Scotland's economy, providing thousands of jobs and essential services to travellers.
"I am also pleased to see ScotRail's success in encouraging more and more people to use the railways in Scotland, with 83.3m journeys on its services last year.
"The Scottish Government is looking forward to working closely with ScotRail over the coming year as the eyes of the world look to Scotland's exciting programme of events for 2014 including the Commonwealth Games."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article