No excuses. Sort out your trains or it’s end of the line
Yousaf warns Abellio to up their game or their £7billion contract will hit the buffers
The Dutch company operating Scotland’s trains have been warned they could be stripped of their contract within months.
Transport Minister Humza Yousaf has vowed to terminate Abellio’s deal to run ScotRail if train delays and cancellations get worse.
The £7billion, 10-year contract has a clause allowing it to be cancelled if only 84.3 per cent of trains are on time or less than five minutes late.
Previously it had been thought the Scottish Government could only end the contract at the halfway point in 2020.
Yousaf is under pressure to take action over Abellio’s dismal service which has angered commuters.
Last week the Sunday Mail revealeded 14,000 people had signed a petition calling for the Abellio contract to be binned unless train services improve.
Yousaf said: “If the service ce fur ther declines, there’s a mechanism to terminate the he contract early.
“I want improvement and we will use every lever to make sure that we improve our railway.”
Under the contract, Abellio arere expected to meet a target of 91.3.3 percent trains arriving at their destination within five minutes of their scheduled time.
But the latest performance figure is 89.6 percent.
The Sunday Mail understands that if it falls to 84.3 percent for three months in a row, or four months out of 13, the Scottish Government can cancel the agreement.
At the SNP conference on Friday, Abel l io ScotRail managing director Phil Verster warned that passengers face years of chaos as the network undergoes massive improvements.
He likened it to “performing open hear surgery while doing a marathon”.
But Yousaf said: “I don’ t find the performance level acceptable at all.
“They have put in an improvement plan and I’ll work with them. We’ll monitor it to see how it progresses.
“But make no mistake about it, if that improvement is not forthcoming, there’s a reason why we have a break clause in the contract.”
It was revealed last week that Nicola Sturgeon has never travelled on a ScotRail train in her role as First Minister. Yousaf drove his car to the SNP conference on Thursday and Friday but said he regularly commutes to Holyrood on the train.
He said: “As someone who uses the train – most of my parliament journeys to Edinburgh are at peak time – I understand the frustrations that people feel.
“There is overcrowding, capacity issues, trains sk ipping stops, issues around reliability and communication.
“All these are at a level that is unacceptable to me. Abellio have some very ambitious plans for our railways in the future.
“What I’ve said to them is the shiny bells and whistles are great, but now get back to the basics – reliability, capacity.
“Get on to that and make this a good experience for the passenger.”
The Sunday Mail has called for a fair deal for Scotland’s rail passengers, including the full publication of ScotRail’s performance improvement plan.
Yousaf said: “I think that’s a fair call. I’ve spoken to ScotRail and a version of the plan, with the main improvements, will be made public, probably this week.
“We have to be careful we’re not releasing anything commercially sensitive, or sensitive to the franchise, but it will be the improvements we expect to be made and how they will make them.
“It will be a full and frank account of what we expect.”
Measures will include a “queue busting” team to reduce long lines of people waiting at Glasgow Central Station to use ticket machines.
There will also be a dedicated crew to tackle overcrowding on trains. ScotRail are also to spend £100,000 on undercover mystery shoppers who will report back on their experiences.
But Yousaf said: “I have asked ScotRail to look again at the cost and they have promised to go back and do that.
“Feedback is important but at a time when we’re trying to spend more money on additional capacity and improving our railways, there is perhaps a better way of spending £100,000.”
Scottish Labour have demanded that passengers are told about the
scale of overcrowding on Scotland’ s overcrowding on Scotland’ s trains. Under the terms of the Abellio franchise, Scot Rail have to audit passenger numbers on every rail service twice a year.
However, the information has not been made publicly available.
This is in contrast with England and Wales, which publishes the top 10 overcrowded services.
Yousaf said: “They are not private or hidden away.
“Can we find a mechanism to make them more transparent?
“If that is the request that is coming in from people, I am more than happy
to look at it. I won’t shy away from it.” You said he would meet with petition group 38 Degrees this week.
He said: “I’ve agreed to meet with them because 14,000 people expressing their concern about our railways is not an insignificant number. It’s a warning sign that things aren’t where they should be.”
Scottish Labour transport spokesman Neil Bibby said: “Train services are already appalling, late running, over priced and over crowded, but Humza Yousaf ’s grand scheme seems to be for them to get even worse before he does
anything about it. The SNP’s claims this contract for our railways would be world-leading is looking more like a bad joke.”
The Rail Maritime and Transport Union’s Scottish organiser Gordon Martin said: “If ScotRail performance levels continue to sink, the contract should be terminated and the Scottish Government should have the courage to bring the rail network under public ownership.
“If profits were wholly reinvested in the railways, it would be a far better service for the people who use it and the workers.”
I’ve asked Scot Rail to look at costs and they will do that