Exclusive:Alarm over 'demoralised' British Transport Police as force makes more Scottish cuts
Force reveals it has insufficient officers to keep four of its remaining police stations fully open
The police force that patrols Scotland’s railways has raised concern at being unable to keep four of its stations fully open as officers quit for better-paid jobs.
British Transport Police (BTP) said its bases at Inverness, Aberdeen, Kirkcaldy and Stirling stations had cut their operating hours because of insufficient officers being available.
The reduction comes on top of the closure of its offices at Dumbarton, Dundee and Perth stations amid a £8.5 million BTP funding shortfall.
The force is now seeking money from the Scottish Government, which criticised the way it had been informed of the cuts to the UK government-controlled force as “wholly unsatisfactory”.
Meantime, the organisation that represents BTP officers said they were spread too thinly across Scotland and feared a further exodus.
A BTP report to the Scottish Railways Policing Committee’s (SRPC) next quarterly meeting on Friday stated: “Our staffing and resilience across Scotland, especially within the north sector, remains a concern.
“As described in previous SRPC meetings, Dundee and Perth are now non-operational stations. Even when fully staffed, we have insufficient officers at Inverness, Aberdeen, Kirkcaldy and Stirling to open the stations seven days a week, 16 hours a day, year round.”
The report said BTP’s staff turnover rate in Scotland in 2024-25 had reached 16 per cent - one in six - which was nearly twice the force average of 9 per cent.
The document said: “Our ability to retain staff is challenged by a number of factors, including higher pay within Police Scotland and competitive jobs within the rail industry. We are in talks with Transport Scotland to consider funding to improve resilience in these stations.
“Furthermore, we are making a bid into our medium-term financial plan budget-setting process to increase the number of officers in Scotland, to ensure we can be more resilient and responsive to the railway.
“We hope the potential investment may, if approved, improve retention in Scotland.”
Stuart Cowan, chair of BTP Federation, said: “There are too few BTP officers in Scotland and those we have are spread far too thinly. My skilled and dedicated colleagues are doing the best they can with the resources they have to hand, but they can’t keep doing more with less.
“Expectation and demand remain higher than the current budget can satisfy. Without appropriate funding and future investment, I fear that more officers will become demoralised and walk away from public service in favour of industries that value them more highly.”
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “British Transport Police is a reserved matter to the UK government. We find the manner in which we were informed of the planned reductions to BTP staffing and the closure of Scottish police stations to be wholly unsatisfactory, without any consultation with the Scottish Government.
“We are working collaboratively with all relevant partners to identify a sustainable solution and are clear that the UK government should change course on its planned cuts.
"We have previously raised concerns as we strongly believe we need a strong, visible presence on our rail system to give confidence to the public and for swift response when needed.”