Under-pressure ScotRail of passengers slams train

Under-fire ScotRail boss Phil Verster quit just before a damning verdict by passengers on his failure to improve the railways.

He left his £ 260,000- a-year post on Friday ahead of petition group 38 Degrees publishing a survey showing almost three-quarters of rail users do not believe the train service has got any better in the past three months.

More than 20,000 people signed a petition calling for the controversial Dutch firm in charge of ScotRail to be stripped of their £7billion 10-year contract unless the service improved.

The petition was delivered in October to Transport Minister Humza Yousaf, who said after the meeting he expected to see “significant improvements” by Abellio.

But since then, ScotRai l have continually failed to meet reliability and punctuality targets.

Lorna Greenwood, campaigns manager of 38 Degrees, said: “While Humza has taken steps to improve Scotland’s trains in recent months, the public clearly aren’t feeling those changes yet.

“People are still being plagued by delays, overcrowding and station skipping. Humza now needs to be clear about what he’ll be doing to keep the pressure up on

Abellio so that he delivers on his promises to passengers.

“Our members will be expecting the next person who runs Scotland’s trains to understand the public deserve a well-performing service and passengers should take priority over the bottom line.”

Yousaf has vowed to terminate Abellio’s deal to run ScotRail if train delays and cancellations get worse.

He is also working on a public sector bid to run the railways.

The survey of nearly 1500 of the passengers who signed the petition shows 73 per cent believe the service has