Our campaign is hailed as rail bosses finally publish list of overcrowded trains
Rail passengers have praised the Sunday Mail for our victory in highlighting the scale of overcrowding on the country’s busiest trains.
ScotRail operators Abellio have finally published a list of their most crammed services and how many passengers are on them.
This newspaper has been campaigning for a fair deal for rail passengers, with thousands forced to endure services that are late, unreliable and don’t have enough seats.
Before our campaign, ScotRail refused to follow the example of operators in England and Wales, who publish details of their most overcrowded services.
Yesterday, campaigners said ScotRail had taken “a necessary step in the right direction” in tackling overcrowding.
Stewart Kirkpatrick, from campaign group 38 Degrees, said: “More than 20,000 people signed the 38 Degrees petition calling on Transport Minister Humza Yousaf to make ScotRail bosses improve Scotland’s trains or strip them of their contract.
“It’s great to see that people power, including the Sunday Mail’s long-running campaign on overcrowding, has given the public this information.
“Admitting these problems is very dif ferent f rom fixing them but it’s a step in the right direction.”
ScotRail agreed to make the figures public after we pressed former managing d i r e c t o r Ph i l Verster on the issue.
The most crowded train is the 17.21 Edinburgh to Glasgow Central service, v ia Shotts, which was 146 per cent over capacity at its most crowded.
It had a maximum of 270 passengers despite a seating and standing capacity of 185.
The 17.01 Glasgow Central to East Kilbride during the summer and the 08.07 Neilston- Glasgow Central were found to be more than 130 per cent over capacity.
Labour transport spokesman Neil Bibby said: “It took months of pressure from the Sunday Mail and Labour to get the f igures published. “They reveal the real s t o r y abo u t t he problems on our railways.
“Passengers are fed up with overcrowded, delayed and expensive trains. “When the SNP awarded the contract to Abellio, SNP ministers said it was a ‘world-leading’ deal. It is clearly nothing of the sort.
“The SNP’s ScotRail shambles has led to passenger satisfaction falling to a 14-year low.
“Transport Minister Yousaf urgent ly needs to restore public confidence.”