ScotRail axes 1,000 trains in single week
‘Sham’ operation sees Sunday timetable halved
NEARLY 1,000 trains were cancelled in a single week after the introduction of ScotRail’s new temporary timetable.
Services were slashed amid a pay row with the train drivers’ union Aslef, with talks set to resume today.
The figures showing the extent of the rail chaos came as it emerged the company stripped of the £6billion ScotRail contract is still receiving cash from the taxpayer.
Dutch state-owned Abellio is running replacement buses in a series of deals – for undisclosed amounts – that will run for up to three years.
Scottish Conservative transport spokesman Graham Simpson said: ‘Just two months after the SNP took full control of ScotRail – and the entire operation seems to have fallen into chaos.
‘The Nationalists have presided over the biggest cuts to services in decades, slashing almost 1,000 services in a week despite reports of train drivers “twiddling their thumbs” as a result.
‘They have made a sham of ScotRail’s claims to be a seven-day-a-week service by cutting Sunday timetables in half.
‘And Abellio, the firm the SNP rightly deemed unfit to carry on operating the service, is still pocketing millions of pounds of taxpayer money in transport contracts.’
Passengers faced further disruption yesterday as the new temporary timetable for Sundays was introduced, with 50 per cent of trains axed.
Two months after nationalisation, 911 trains were cancelled between May 23 – when the new temporary timetable came into force on weekdays – and May 29, with 383 of them in a single day, according to figures obtained by the Sunday Mail which ScotRail did not dispute.
It emerged yesterday that Abellio has signed four contracts understood to total millions of pounds to supply replacement buses, provide customer services, manage station tenancies and deliver payroll services.
A deal with Abellio to run a customer service phone line and provide payroll services is set to run until 2025. Abellio did not respond to a request for comment yesterday.
Last night Transport Scotland said: ‘Trains will be lengthened where necessary and possible to provide the required capacity.’