Travel service should always be first class

NO ONE could deny there hasn’t been a difficult set of circumstances for Abellio to cope with as they strive to improve Scotland’s rail services.

Strikes, storms and complicated engineering works have made sure the firm hasn’t had its problems to seek.

It is to his credit, then, that managing director Phil Verster was prepared to sit down with a Sunday Post reporter to discuss the difficulties. He could have kept his head low and himself out of the spotlight.

But he has discussed the problems openly and honestly and taken heed of our, and commuters’, concerns. His ideas for change are all good.

But the proof of the pudding is in the eating.

The public relies heavily on the transport service. It is a critical issue. It has to be better. It has to be right.

It’s no good being 80% fixed, we have to be able to fully and confidently rely on it – every route, every hour of every day, every week.

This is a vitally important part of any nation’s infrastructure.

The public pays its money but sometimes they don’t have a choice about how they travel.

We deserve and should be able to expect a first-class service.