Rail f irm should lose £6bn deal, say commuters

THOUSANDS of frustrated commuters have demanded that Dutch firm Abellio is stripped of its £6billion contract to run ScotRail.

The firm is under pressure amid growing reports of late and unclean trains.

Yesterday, campaign group 38 Degrees handed a petition signed by 19,242 frustrated commuters to transport minister Humza Yousaf, urging him to take action.

The petition says that if Abellio fails to improve it should lose the contract to run trains in Scotland.

Stewart Kirkpatrick of 38 Degrees said: ‘What we’re here to do today is to communicate the views of 19,000 people across Scotland who are tired of the ScotRail service.

‘What we have seen is an upsurge of opinion and strong feeling that what’s on offer at the moment is not good enough.

‘As well as asking for signatures, we’ve asked people to give us their stories and accounts of ScotRail. What’s coming through loud and clear is that an awful lot people are very, very unhappy about delays.’

Mr Yousaf accepted the petition, but denied the Government had awarded the contract, due to expire in 2025, to the wrong company.

He said: ‘There were a number of demands that were made of the franchise and that are made of the franchise. Now in most of them there have been ticks and we’re seeing good progress; but clearly in some they’re not at the standards I would expect them to be.

‘Performance measures are a key part of that – trains arriving within five minutes of when they’re meant to is not at the level I would expect or the franchise demands.

‘That’s why an improvement plan has been demanded from Abellio and ScotRail. Let’s see if they can make those improvements and make the railways work for passengers and commuters.’

Scottish Labour transport spokesman Neil Bibby said: ‘It should not take a petition for the SNP to take action. The Scottish Government received an improvement plan from ScotRail in September, but services are still unacceptable.

‘A third of all routes in Scotland have services that are late more often than they are on time, while the Scottish Government’s cap on rush-hour fares has increased by over 23 per cent since 2011 – and Abellio is raking in a £1million-amonth profit from the franchise.

‘It is time for Humza Yousaf to explain to passengers what improvements he is going to make and when these improvements will take place. Scotland’s rail passengers are fed up with the poor service they are receiving.’

Speaking on BBC Radio Scotland, ScotRail Alliance managing director Phil Verster said: ‘I definitely want us to be in a better place with train punctuality performance. We are putting an incredible amount of effort in to recover that performance because we know how important it is. We are only about 11 months away from the first new trains being introduced. Our customers are going to be significantly impressed in the next couple of years.’

MORE than 15,000 people have applied for 78 jobs driving new trains being launched by Virgin.

The company said there had been almost 200 applications for every vacancy following the biggest recruitment campaign on the East Coast route between Edinburgh and London since the 1980s.

The successful candidates will start training in January.

‘Services are still unacceptable’