ScotRail misses year of targets – Page 15

THE company running Scotland’s trains is facing fresh criticism after new figures suggested it had missed a whole year’s worth of punctuality targets.

Research by the Scottish Labour party shows the performance of ScotRail is actually getting worse.

The party will be campaigning at stations across the country tomorrow, calling on the Scottish Government to strip Abellio of the ScotRail franchise in 2020.

Scottish Labour believes the franchise should be taken back into public ownership.

The punctuality figures follow a survey by passenger group Transport Focus last week which show passenger satisfaction in ScotRail had plummeted.

Under the £7billion ten-year franchise deal, a certain percentage of trains are expected to run on time. The target fluctuates throughout the year, but is always between 91 and 92 per cent. In 2017-18, ScotRail did not hit the target once in 13 separate periods. In the first two periods of 2018-19, its performance has been even worse than the previous year at 89.3 per cent – more than 1.5 per cent below target.

Colin Smyth, Scottish Labour transport spokesman, said: ‘It is shocking that ScotRail has failed to meet any of its punctuality targets for 2017-18.

‘Hard-pressed passengers are paying up to a fifth of their wages on commuting costs but all they get in return is delayed, overcrowded trains that cannot be guaranteed to stop at the right stations.

‘Transport Minister Humza Yousaf needs to get a grip and put Scotland’s rail passengers out of their misery by ending the current franchise.’

ScotRail blamed major disruption caused by snowfall during February, but Transport Focus said poor punctuality was also a factor.

Both the Scottish Government and ScotRail insisted performance would improve.

Mr Yousaf said: ‘We should not lose sight of the transformational process under way on our railways in terms of infrastructure enhancements, as well as the introduction of new and fully re-furbished rolling stock with the additional services that they will provide.’

A ScotRail spokesman said: ‘The most recent figures show that nine out of ten ScotRail trains met their punctuality target.’

‘No guarantee trains will stop at right station’