ScotRail sees complaints hit 20,000 a year

SCORES of passengers a day are complaining to ScotRail amid growing concerns over the firm’s punctuality and standards.

Travellers made more than 22,000 complaints about Scotland’s trains last year – which amounts to 61 every single day.

The number soared after Dutch operator Abellio took over the ScotRail franchise in 2015.

The figures come amid growing concerns about delays, overcrowding and poor information on trains. They were branded a ‘damning indictment’ of ScotRail’s performance.

Neil Bibby, Scottish Labour’s transport spokesman, said: ‘To have scores of complaints every day is completely unacceptable and a damning indictment of ScotRail.

‘Passengers have been left sick and tired of delays, cancellations and overcrowded trains – and it is no surprise to see complaints are higher now than before Abellio took over.

‘Public satisfaction with ScotRail is at a 14-year low and passengers are losing patience with Transport Minister Humza Yousaf’s failure to act.

‘He cannot allow a repeat of the chaos that blighted the rail network last autumn and winter, and that means getting on top of performance now.’

Figures published yesterday by the Office of Road and Rail show that ScotRail received 24 complaints for every 100,000 journeys in 2016/17.

Based on the 93.2 million journeys made by passengers on ScotRail services every year, that amounts to 22,368 complaints a year – or 61 a day.

In 2014/15, the final year of First Group’s franchise, there were 23.7 complaints per 100,000 journeys. After Abellio took over in April 2015, this jumped to 26.5 in 2015/16, before falling to 24 last year.

The best performing franchised train operating company in the UK was the London Underground, which attracted just 2.2 complaints per 100,000 journeys.

The worst was Virgin Trains West Coast, with 154.3 complaints per 100,000.

Earlier this year, the National Rail Passenger Survey revealed that only 83 per cent of passengers were happy with ScotRail in the autumn of 2016 – down from 87 per cent over the year.

Figures published earlier this week revealed a majority of trains are arriving late at nearly one in three Scottish stations.

ScotRail also published national data showing its average punctuality performance over the last year was only 90.5 per cent – which remains lower than the target of 91.3 per cent written into the ScotRail franchise by Transport Scotland.

A ScotRail spokesman said: ‘The most recent figures show that 95 per cent of trains are on time. There were 93 million passenger journeys on our network last year, so the number of complaints was very small when looked at in context.

‘But we take every customer complaint seriously, and do everything we can to provide the best possible service.’

A Transport Scotland spokesman said: ‘ScotRail has been working hard to lift performance, as can be evidenced by several months of sustained improvement, and this small drop in complaints is welcome.’

‘Passengers are losing patience’