Craig of Campbeltown (T/A Glasgow Citybus) Alexander Dennis Enviro 200MMC
New owners for former ScotRail franchisee
Catching up with a couple of news items is that Dutch Firm Nederlandse Spoorwegen have announced that they’re selling their United Kingdom (UK) transport operations to their UK management team. You may wonder who they are and what they operate but in the UK, they operate under the name Abellio.
Abellio UK is responsible for running four of the UK’s rail passenger services – East Midlands, West Midlands, Greater Anglia and Merseyrail - as well claiming to being the fastest growing operator in the London bus network. The new company will be called Transport UK Group Limited. Snappy name.
Of course Abellio is most famous in Scotland - or should that be infamous - for holding the franchise to run ScotRail, taking over from First In 2015. That is until it ended early - or wasn’t extended to be more accurate- and the operation was taken over by the Scottish Government as an ‘operator of last resort’ in 2021 after six years.
So after a few UK transport companies passing into foreign ownership, we have a foreign one passing some of its business into UK ownership, bucking the trend somewhat.
Under Abellio ownership, Glasgow Citybus won the contract to run the Glasgow city rail-link between Central and Queen Street Stations, via Buchanan Bus Station. Standard fare on the service are these short-wheelbase Enviros, one of which is 41602 (SN65ZHA).
Craig of Campbeltown (T/A Glasgow Citybus) Alexander Dennis Enviro 200MMC
New owners for former ScotRail franchisee
Catching up with a couple of news items is that Dutch Firm Nederlandse Spoorwegen have announced that they’re selling their United Kingdom (UK) transport operations to their UK management team. You may wonder who they are and what they operate but in the UK, they operate under the name Abellio.
Abellio UK is responsible for running four of the UK’s rail passenger services – East Midlands, West Midlands, Greater Anglia and Merseyrail - as well claiming to being the fastest growing operator in the London bus network. The new company will be called Transport UK Group Limited. Snappy name.
Of course Abellio is most famous in Scotland - or should that be infamous - for holding the franchise to run ScotRail, taking over from First In 2015. That is until it ended early - or wasn’t extended to be more accurate- and the operation was taken over by the Scottish Government as an ‘operator of last resort’ in 2021 after six years.
So after a few UK transport companies passing into foreign ownership, we have a foreign one passing some of its business into UK ownership, bucking the trend somewhat.
Under Abellio ownership, Glasgow Citybus won the contract to run the Glasgow city rail-link between Central and Queen Street Stations, via Buchanan Bus Station. Standard fare on the service are these short-wheelbase Enviros, one of which is 41602 (SN65ZHA).