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WE miss everything but their pork pies and curly sandwiches. British Rail, once the butt of almost as many jokes as Les Dawson's mother-in-law, was never loved. But it has been mourned.

A decade after the UK's railway system was privatised, and despite a remarkable improvement in services, especially in recent years, many Scots still want to see the railways back in state hands.

Today The Herald reveals the first tentative talks that could nudge much of the system out of privatisation, at least north of the border. Senior executives from Network Rail, the quasi-public operator of infrastructure, have held talks with senior Labour MSPs ahead of next month's elections.

Their discussions, on the possible creation of a new government firm that would run both the tracks and most of the trains in Scotland, could end years of confusion over who exactly runs the nation's railways. They could bear fruit regardless of who takes power on May 3, with the SNP just as likely to be sympathetic to a "Scottish" solution as Labour.

Right now all the tracks, signalling and other infrastructure is owned and managed by the Scottish division of Network Rail, the body that took over from Railtrack, the privately owned concern set up by the Tories in 1996.

Most trains are run by First ScotRail, a division of the Aberdeen-based First Group with the rights to operate services until 2011. True, Virgin Trains and GNER chug some of their fast inter-city trains up from England, on the west and east coast mainlines respectively. But Scotland's railways, despite the complications of privatisation, have far more geographical integrity than the rest of the UK's network. That is why some experts think a partial renationalisation could work here, after the 2011 cut-off for the First franchise.

So what are the problems with the system? Especially as Scotland is investing massively in new rail? Some insiders, few of whom are eager to be quoted at election time, suggest big-ticket infrastructure investments might just be revealing some of the weaknesses.

Take the first new railway approved by the Scottish Parliament. Just 13 miles long, the Stirling-Alloa-Kincardine line (SAK for short) was almost completely uncontroversial when it got the nod from MSPs back in 2004, although its official price tag of £37m was more than had initially been anticipated when it was just an idea on a council drawing board.

The benefits were obvious: it would link Alloa to the national rail passenger network for the first time since 1968, and take heavy coal trains bound for Longannet, Scotland's biggest power station, off the Forth Bridge.

The railway was supposed to open this winter but it is now months behind schedule. And, three years on from the original approval, even that £37m looks like a bargain. Official estimates say the line will be finished in June, at a cost of between £65m and £70m.

Engineers discovered unforeseen problems, including uncharted mines. Compensation claims from landowners exceeded expectations. And sources believe signalling on the line might not be ready for the proposed passenger services to begin for the winter timetable in December 2007.

Transport Scotland, the executive's transport agency, says most of the signalling is in place. Crucially, it does not say the railway will open in June. A spokeswoman said: "Much of the required signalling infrastructure is in place, although some further work is required during the commissioning process."

The spokeswoman, bound by strict rules on officials making political statements ahead of elections, was unable to give any new details on costs for the project. Other insiders, however, make it clear that any delay getting trains running on the track would only add to the project's costs, by cutting revenue streams.

There is yet another sticking point. Just a few months ahead of the official opening date, the biggest coal freight operator in Scotland, EWS, has said it will not be using the line unless Transport Scotland lifts a threat to impose extra fees to help claw back some of the unexpected costs.

Graham Meiklejohn, spokesman for EWS, said: "If they put a toll on that line, the route will become uneconomic and unaffordable for us, and we will continue to run our trains over the Forth Bridge."

SAK is being officially promoted by Tie, a firm set up and owned by Edinburgh City Council. The railway will be funded by the Scottish Executive through Transport Scotland. Its track will eventually be operated by Network Rail and its trains - tolls aside - by EWS and First ScotRail. The Office of the Rail Regulator, the industry's watchdog, has taken an interest, too. It's still mulling over paperwork from Transport Scotland on whether it can slam those extra tolls on SAK.

Confused? The roads aren't much easier to understand. And they're still in state hands, albeit split between councils and the executive.

EWS and Transport Scotland are not the only bodies squabbling over tolls. The Liberal Democrats recently toyed with the idea of pioneering road pricing in Scotland, using pay-as-you-drive technology that has not quite been perfected yet. Congestion charging has been rejected by citizens in Edinburgh, despite the city having some of Scotland's most congested roads. Motorists do not like tolls. Parties know that, and are clamouring to offer alternatives to the fees to cross the Tay and Forth bridges.

Transport planners moan at that. Tolls, after all, are helping to keep cars off the ageing and creaking Forth Road Bridge, which will need to be replaced or supplemented some time soon. That job - the biggest ticket of them all - raises questions about the other major Scottish transport infrastructure improvements already on the table. And some of them are far more controversial than SAK. The Edinburgh Airport Rail Link, or Earl, approved by parliament shortly before it broke up, is the most contentious. Tie, the same firm behind SAK, aims to spend more than £600m to build a tunnel under one of Scotland's two increasingly busy central belt air hubs.

Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT), the Glasgow-based transport agency, has some schemes of its own. A Glasgow Airport Rail, which poses substantially fewer engineering problems than its east-coast equivalent, has been backed as well. But it does not offer the same cross-country links as Earl without yet another, as yet unapproved, scheme: Glasgow Crossrail.

This would link commuter services north and south of the Clyde (not the city's two main stations, despite widespread reporting to the contrary). But it would also slow trains down from Glasgow's suburbs, adding, for example, more than 10 minutes to a trip to the city from East Kilbride. A more expensive option, a tunnel under the city, was ruled out by SPT on cost grounds, just as the body proposed a hugely expensive expansion to its antiquated Subway.

The parliament has also backed schemes to build a new railway to the Borders, and there are advanced plans for services from Airdrie to Bathgate. So who decides which of these offer the best value for money? How are they judged against each other's merits? They are not.

Meanwhile, a new bridge over the Forth is needed, at a cost of billions. Cutting or dropping tolls (as proposed by several parties) will not cut the number of cars crossing it. So will all the big-ticket transport improvements go ahead whether BR is reborn north of the border or not?

We just jump whatever bus comes along. We've seen the whole country'

The sisters - Mrs Conway is 78, Mrs Kane, 72 - meet in the city centre three times a week and flash their little saltire bus passes at a driver - pretty much any driver.

"We just jump whatever bus comes along," says Kane. "We just go wherever the first bus takes us and have a wee trip. If it's raining we come back on the same bus, if not we'll stop for some tea and a scone."

Conway and Kane are just two of the tens of thousands of pensioners who are getting more out of Scottish buses since the executive brought in nationwide free travel for the elderly nearly a year ago. And they love it. "We've seen the whole country," says Conway. "We've been to Dundee, Stirling, even Stranraer. We've been all over the place. We like Hamilton, and we love the shops in Irvine, Ayr and Braehead. We often go down to Prestwick, where there's a church with a wee cafe for the pensioners. Oh, and Largs. We like Largs, too."

Sometimes the pair set out with a destination in mind. They list off bus numbers, local and inter-city, like bingo numbers. But it doesn't always work. "My eyesight isn't always that good," Kane explains. "One day we wanted to go to Kilmarnock so we jumped on a bus. It turned out it was going to Kilmacolm. But it was lovely."

Conway lives in Paisley; Kane in Maryhill. Their family are spread out over Scotland - Conway's son Jim is a long coach trip away in Inverness. But the free buses are a huge help in keeping the family together - if not much use for visiting their other sister, Gladys, who is in Canada.

Free bus travel was a flagship policy to get Scotland's elderly moving, and it has proved astonishingly popular. Last year it was revealed that bus travel had risen for the first time since the 1970s. Passenger numbers were up most in the Lothians, where many of the local buses are still in council ownership.

The pensioners, moreover, are sustaining services for the rest of the population. Many, like Kane and Conway, have found their own special little lifeline on the buses, keeping positive, keeping in touch with family, keeping fit.

"We like to keep active," says Conway. "The buses help that.

I just wish they had free travel on the train, too."

What the parties say

SNP
An SNP government will invest £300m in our railways to ease the commute and cut journey times between our cities, rather than £600m building an unnecessary new hub station under Edinburgh airport. Will scrap tolls on the Tay and Forth bridges and invest in upgrades to nationally important trunk roads.

CONSERVATIVE
Will hold a review to consider high-speed rail links, including Maglev between Edinburgh and Glasgow. Remove tolls on the Forth and Tay bridges and build new Forth crossing. £15m annual fund for road-accident blackspots.

LIB DEM
The party wants faster trains between Scotland's cities and a high-speed rail link to London. Will abolish tolls on the Tay Bridge and end them on the Forth Bridge for cars with more than one occupant. Will ensure the replacement Forth crossing is built as soon as is practicable, with special provision for public transport such as light rail and bus.

GREEN
Will introduce statutory road traffic reduction targets, plus concessionary public transport for low-income groups. Will encourage safer driving, including more home zones. Wants more support for cycling, and the public ownership of the rail system. Will re-open rail stations and provide high-speed service to the south of England; scrap the Glasgow M74 and Aberdeen bypass; support replacement Forth road crossing but oppose additional one; halt airport expansion; support cross-rail schemes in Glasgow and Aberdeen; and support "smart" bridge tolls to encourage car-sharing.

SSP
Wants re-regulation of buses as the first phase of a completely free public transport system, followed by the establishment of a publicly owned bus group and the transfer of the ScotRail franchise to a publicly owned Scottish National Rail company. Wants the abolition of all bridge tolls, and is opposed to new road-building projects.

SOLIDARITY
Would bring Scotland's railways back into public ownership, with services run by a not-for-profit company.

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8:45pm Wednesday 11th April 2007

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