On Scotland’s over-crowded trains

Verster says: “If people can get into a train comfortably and stand, it is still safe. There is no aspect of the loading that is inherently unsafe.” Nevertheless, people feel unsafe. “I’ll just be honest with you,” Verster replies. “I don’t take any pleasure from the fact that some of the trains are as busy as they are, and it is my absolute priority to get through the next 11 months by helping our customers as much as possible, give them as much information as possible to make journeys on trains that are less busy. But we are focusing on getting the new trains and the refurbished trains into service to give us the capacity we really need.”

It is hard to get data on overcrowding. When the Sunday Herald requested a figure for the number of trains that were running with reduced numbers of carriages, ScotRail came back with a different statistic: the claim that over the last year they “have provided 99.6 per cent of the contracted number of seats we are required to provide across the ScotRail network”.

Yet, research published in July shows that complaints received by ScotRail Abellio have risen by 38 per cent over the period leading up to March 31, and among these complaints were many regarding lack of sufficient seating.

IN Musselburgh, the early-morning platform of the station looks quiet until minutes before the train from North Berwick to Edinburgh comes in. Grant Buchanan is one of the commuters there early, keen to make sure he gets on the 8.13am which, he says, is all too frequently only two or three carriages long, and sometimes so crowded not everyone can fit in. Once a week, he says, there isn’t enough space, and he has to take a later train. Recently, a train was cancelled and he had to work for part of the morning at home. “You’ll see it’s quite unpleasant when you’re on the train,” he says. “You’re squashed up against each other.”

Buchanan believes that this service is one that’s sacrificed if the network is suffering for other reasons. “Often when it says that it’s cancelled it’s because of a late-running train elsewhere, a knock on effect.”

When the train pulls up it’s three carriages long, and there’s little space for passengers – it’s standing room only before the doors open. “Like being on the tube in London,” is how Musselburgh resident and green campaigner Jason Rose described it, “which is not what you would expect in East Lothian.”

ANOTHER route which is frequently a source of social media complaint is the line between Linlithgow and Edinburgh. Calum MacKinnon is one regular commuter and remembers that even before Abellio took over ScotRail the journey was a trial. “I never thought the service could get any worse. But since Abellio took over there has been a steady and steep decline in the service and I dread what the winter months are likely to hold ... Every day is a lottery, between delayed services and short carriages and cancelled services.”

Rush-hour services, he says, are regularly run with only two carriages. “On the way in there’s frequently no space left for commuters at Linlithgow. On the return journey any poor soul hoping to get on at Edinburgh Park has little or no chance and when the train reaches Linlithgow it’s a challenge to get off as people are crammed in.”

Sometimes, he noted, when the services have been running late, Abellio has removed stops, so trains no longer stop at Linlithgow, Polmont or Falkirk. “This leaves hundreds of commuters stranded, with the prospect of then trying to get on the overcrowded following Dunblane train.”

Rob Bruce, a fellow traveller on this service, shares similar grievances. He observes that rains regularly arrive “with three carriages rather than six”. ScotRail, he says, “seems to be happy to charge a premium to herd us around in conditions that would even upset animal welfare officers”. Bruce travels by train, he says, because he can’t drive. He objects to posters and webpages suggesting better, less-busy trains to travel on. As Bruce puts it: “They can create webpages listing less busy trains all they like, but ultimately, how many people will get away with saying to their bosses ‘is it OK if I come in at 10.30am every day since that’s when I can get a less busy train’? Very few I expect.”

Details that Abellio is using £1 million of funds from ScotRail to better the Dutch rail passenger experience have not helped public perception. “The icing on the cake,” says one commuter, “is the recent revelations that Abellio is milking £1m profit a month out of the network. The admission that they’re able to do this with ‘minimal investment’ tells you it all.”

An Abellio spokesperson, however, said: “No funds have been transferred to the Netherlands, and claims to the contrary are entirely wrong.”

Verster is keen to bring things back into perspective. His point is that Abel- lio couldn’t have enlarged its fleet any faster. “When you take over a franchise,” he says, “there’s a certain lead time that no matter how hard you squeeze, you need to place a contract, the train builders need to start. It’s not as if we could have done two somersaults and it would have been quicker.”

He adds: “People often think that we have trains standing doing nothing in a yard somewhere. Please give people an assurance that we run every possible train that we can run. The only trains that are not in service are trains that must go through essential maintenance.”

Meanwhile, the Scottish Government acknowledges that all is not going to plan. Transport Secretary Humza Yousaf admits: “ScotRail’s performance this year has not been at the level the Scottish Government demands and expects which is why I have taken decisive action in calling for the operator to deliver an improvement plan outlining how they will improve passenger services going forward.”

For many on the busiest commuter lines now, however, there’s still the dread of the morning commute and the evening rush hour – the sardine-tin crush, or the possibility of a crowded train with no space for them at all.

I’ll just be honest with you. I don’t take any pleasure from the fact that some of the trains are as busy as they are, and it is my absolute priority to get through the next 11 months by helping our customers as much as possible, give them as much information as possible to make journeys on trains that are less busy