Cookie policy

Our website https://www.scotrail.co.uk (the “Site”) uses cookies to help us to provide you with a good experience when you browse the Site and they also allow us to improve the Site.

When entering the site for the first time, you will have been presented with the option to either allow or refuse certain categories of non-essential cookie. If you wish to make changes to the selection you have made, then you can do so by clicking here.

A "cookie" is a small text file that is placed on your device or equipment when you visit a website (equipment like computer, phone, and tablet).

There are several types of cookies:

Functional cookies / Session cookies

The functional or session cookies are used to provide services or to store your preferred settings. For example for:

  • Remembering the products you purchase during online shopping
  • Memorising and passing on the information that you enter during the log-in process or that you leave behind on the various web pages during the ordering process, so that you do not have to enter the same data every time
  • Saving your preferences
  • Detecting abuse of the Site

Analytical cookies

These cookies are used to analyse your visit to the Site. For example, we analyse the number of visitors visiting the Site, the duration of the visits, the order of the pages visited and whether the pages of a website need to be adjusted.

With the help of the information we collect using analytical cookies we can make the Site more user-friendly as well as identify and solve possible technical problems on the websites. One such tool we use to gather analytical information is Google Analytics. On the web, you can choose to opt-out of Google Analytics by installing Google’s opt-out browser add-on

Marketing and tracking cookies

Only if you have given us permission in advance will we use tracking cookies for commercial purposes. These cookies, often placed by third parties, help us to be able to offer you personalised offers. Third parties can follow your internet behaviour with tracking cookies. ScotRail uses a Tag Management System from Google Tag Manager to manage the choice of cookies. This way we can guarantee that no cookies are processed that you have not explicitly given permission for.

JavaScript and Pixels

In addition to cookies, we use JavaScript and Pixels. By using JavaScript in your browser, we can make our sites interactive and develop applications for the web.

A Pixel is a small graphic image on our site. By means of this image, we can, for example, determine how many visitors saw the page at which times. These techniques can also be used for marketing and tracking purposes. We use two types of Pixel; a Facebook Pixel, which analyses visits to the Site from Facebook and DoubleClick Pixel, which analyses visits to the Site from our advertising across the internet.

Cookies from external parties

Some of the cookies are used by third parties with our consent with the aim to bring certain products and services to your attention or to give you direct access to social media. These third parties include:

For the cookies that these external parties place, the information they collect with them and the purpose for which that information is used, please refer to the privacy statements of these parties on their respective websites. These statements can change regularly and we have no control whatsoever.

Would you like to know more about cookies? Go to http://www.allaboutcookies.org

If you would prefer us not to set cookies on our Site, you can disable them by changing your internet browser settings. How to do this will depend on the browser you are using, but the following is a step-by-step guide to the most popular browsers:

Microsoft Internet Explorer:

  1. Click on the "Tools" menu
  2. Select "Internet Options"
  3. Click on the "Privacy" tab
  4. Select the desired setting

Google Chrome:

  1. Click on the Customisation menu at the top right of the page
  2. Select "Settings"
  3. Select "Show Advanced Settings" and then "Content Settings"
  4. Select the desired settings under the "Cookies" heading

Mozilla Firefox:

  1. Click on the "Tools" menu
  2. Click on “Options"
  3. Select "Privacy"
  4. Choose the desired options under the "Cookie" menu

For all other browsers, please follow the instructions provided by the relevant browser, usually located within the "Help", "Tools" or "Edit" facility.

If you only disable third party cookies, you will still be able to use this Website, but some of its content will not be as relevant to you. If you disable all cookies, this will result in the Site not working properly.

If you do choose to disable cookies, this choice will only apply to the device you are using at the time. If you want to stop cookies being set on other devices, you will need to follow the relevant steps on each device. Please note that disabling cookies does not delete cookies from your browser, you will need to do this from within your browser.

Access to our database containing personal information on registered users of the Site is restricted. In order to increase security we ask you to input a password when you register as a user of the Site. Please keep this password secret. In addition, we encrypt your financial information using SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) technology so that no one else can access your credit card details as they travel through the Internet. SSL is certified by Verisign and is recognised as a secure way to pay on-line.

As you may be aware, no data transmission over the Internet can be entirely secure. As a result, while we will always use reasonable endeavours to protect the personal information you provide to us, we cannot guarantee the security of your information and the use of our facilities (e.g. email) is at your own risk. If you have any questions about paying for your ticket through the Site, please contact Customer Relations.