ONE of the biggest changes in Scotland's transport system takes place tomorrow.

 

The Scotrail franchise moves from FirstGroup to Dutch company Abellio.

After winning the £2.5billion contract promises were made that the new operator will improve services.

The ScotRail franchise covers 2300 trains each weekday, more than 86.3million passenger journeys and 1.6billion passenger miles a year.

The transport giant runs services from Glasgow to Edinburgh as well as towns and cities the length and breadth of Scotland.

The densest part of the network is around Glasgow where there are 183 stations making it the second largest suburban rail network in the UK after London.

Its almost 5000 employees will also transfers over tomorrow.

And the changes to Scotland's rail network has prompted hope that it may benefit commuters.

As well as increasing the number of carriages there is also hope that prices may be reduced,

Jane Clink, 30, from Bothwell thinks the new owners need to increase the number of trains.

She said: "There is overcrowding but usually it's round about peak hours which you expect.

"But it is annoying when you get on a train and there is so many people and you're standing and banging into everybody."

The psychology student is unsure whether she would like the new company to introduce more coaches, she said: "I'm all for them trying to save money but at the same time you want to try and compensate the overcrowding.

"It would be nice if they'd keep you in the loop if you're paying for a service."

This is a claim backed up by 35-year-old Stephen Morse from Glasgow, who doesn't use trains all the time but when he does has an issue with overcrowding.

He said he would like to see Abellio introduce "more trains as they are quite busy," to improve the services provided by ScotRail.

Adding additional coaches may only lead to more problems which is why Leah Smith, psychology student from Knightswood, was against the idea of adding more trains.

The 30-year-old said: "It might be a bit difficult for disabled people and people with children getting on and off trains if they brought coaches in."

Mary Bingham, from Kirkcaldy and who frequently travels to Glasgow said the trains from the city to Edinburgh can quite often be extremely hectic.

She said: "Overcrowding is definitely a problem and I definitely didn't know that there was going to be a takeover."

The current service covers 2300 trains each weekday, but Samantha Lindsay, aged 24 from Airdrie, said she would like to see, "a better service, faster times and wouldn't want them to put their prices up because their prices are actually fine."

John Morrison, 29, from Glasgow hopes the takeover will bring a better quality of work from the staff, he said: "Most of the drivers are really cheeky, you ask them a simple question and they bite your head off."