Scottish Greens criticise ScotRail over ‘unacceptable’ performance failures

THE Scottish Greens have called for the country’s railways to be taken into public ownership after highlighting a series of ‘unacceptable’ ScotRail performance failures.

Investigations by the party’s Transport spokesperson John Finnie MSP revealed that 5,968 trains were subject to stop-skipping – where late running trains miss out stations to make up time – and that nearly 500,000 seats were planned but not provided.

Figures also revealed that 22% of train toilet audits failed throughout the year.

Mr Finnie said:“These unacceptable ScotRail performance stats demonstrate the need for greater investment in our railways. That investment doesn’t come as a result of private operators running a franchise.

“It is vital that ScotRail is moved into the public sector as soon as possible. I welcome the cross party approach taken by the Transport Minister in this regard so far, but I would urge him to move faster – ensuring a public sector bid is in place for the 2020 deadline.”

A ScotRail Alliance spokesman said: “We are investing hundreds of millions of pounds improving Scotland’s railway.

“The work we are doing will mean faster journeys, more seats and better services for our customers. “We are currently working to deliver the largest programme of benefits for rail customers in a generation. Across the country, we will introduce 200 new services, providing 100,000 more seats per day.

Transport minister Humza Yousaf said: “I have made clear skip-stopping should be minimised, particularly at peak periods, and acknowledge that this practice is currently recorded and reported as part of overall performance measures.

“While the figures referred to by John Finnie amount to less than 1% of overall services run, the ongoing Donavan review will look closely at performance, including skip-stopping.

“Once the findings of this are published, I will take the opportunity to look at the recommended steps for improvement and how this information is made publicly available.

“Only now, after repeated efforts, do we have powers to enable future contracts in Scotland to be let to the public sector and we are working to enable a public sector bid for Scotland’s railways in the future.”