Transport Minister has to walk the walk now

Here’s a story about Scotland’s charismatic Transport Minister Humza Yousaf.

Last month, when ScotRail were undergoing their transition from national embarrassment to ongoing disaster area, the SNP held their annual conference in Glasgow.

The Sunday Mail checked how the Transport Minister, a man responsible for getting us off the roads and on to buses and trains, was making his six-mile journey.

Humza clearly didn’t fancy entrusting his journey to ScotRail, despite having a station within walking distance of his home and travelling to a venue with its own dedicated stop.

When faced with the choice of ScotRail or car, he opted for his car.

But Humza is not an ordinary commuter and faced the embarrassment of looking like a hypocrite when confronted by our team.

With a combination of the audacity, shamelessness and opportunism of a political natural, he turned this negative into a positive. He travelled by ScotRail on day three and tweeted a picture of his epic journey from Clarkston to the SECC for the benefit of his 50,000 plus social media followers.

Humza was front and centre again last week gamely heading to meet passengers as a brokendown train gave ScotRail one of its worst ever days.

It can’t have been the easiest day at the office with calls for his resignation ringing in his ears. He must, though, realise that ScotRail ’s problems won’t be fixed with a personal appearance here and a smart tweet there.

There’s a modern disease in which Scottish politicians and public bodies confuse being in control of a message with fixing a problem.

The Transport Minister should be careful he doesn’t fall victim.

He was back on Twitter on Thursday, hailing ScotRail’s daily performance and assuring his public that he was “continuing to personally monitor performance.”

Bold words. It’s a brave politician who ties his personal fortune to the horror show which passes for our national rail provider.

Some say ScotRail’s Dutch operators Abellio have been a bit unlucky and will eventually get their act together.

That’s naive. From stock provision, to ticketing and customer relations, it is failing repeatedly on almost every level.

The calls for Humza Yousaf ’s resignation are possibly politically motivated, unfair and over the top.

He’d be a loss to frontline politics.

But he must be prepared to back his tough talking on ScotRail with decisive action if the failures continue.

When faced with the choice of going by ScotRail or car, Humza opted for his car