Sleeper services to and from Scotland, and through day services from England to the Highlands, could both be under threat, a consultation on the future of the country’s rail system has said.

The Scottish Government’s Rail 2014 – Public Consultation has been issued because both the franchise for ScotRail passenger services and current funding arrangements for Network Rail end in that year. The consultation ends on 20 February 2012.

Scottish ministers specify and contract for passenger services and fund the maintenance, renewal and investment delivered by Network Rail within Scotland.

Transport minister Keith Brown said: “Our ambition is to have a railway that offers value for money, ensures closer working and integration between Network Rail and the service operators and, most importantly, has passenger interests at its heart.”

Brown said there were some 78m passenger journeys made a year on ScotRail’s 2,800kms network, with a further 6m journeys on services originating in England.

Passenger demand had risen by 25.5% over the last seven years and was expected to grow further.

The proposal to end services from England through central Scotland to destinations further north, such as Aberdeen and Inverness, has arisen because capacity is “frequently underutilised”, the paper said.

Under the proposal, Edinburgh would become an interchange for cross-border services on the East Coast Main Line, as Glasgow is for the west.

Advantages would include higher revenue for the Scottish rail franchisee, rather for English operators, greater resilience during bad weather and the removal of duplication and inefficiency, the paper said.

It also questioned the continuation of sleeper services between London and Scotland. These run to Edinburgh, Glasgow, Fort William, Inverness and Aberdeen, costing £21m a year excluding track access charges.

These trains provided an alternative to air travel but faced growing competition from improved daytime services and declining demand as “passengers having higher expectations of the facilities and services available, and therefore alternatives such as budget hotels and sleeper bus services become more attractive”.

Improvements such as en-suite facilities, better temperature control and reduced noise could make the sleepers more attractive, but would be costly.

The sleeper service could be let as a stand-alone franchise, it suggested.

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