Nicola Sturgeon has ordered ScotRail bosses to publish in full almost 250 steps being taken to improve the network, as the Scottish Government again came under fire for a rail service “shambles”.
Tory leader Ruth Davidson and her Labour counterpart Kezia Dugdale both challenged the First Minister on the issue at Holyrood, with Ms Davidson highlighting the “chaos that passengers have endured” as she demanded the action plan be made public.
Ms Dugdale said fed up travellers “needed a break”, as she called on the Scottish Government to put the brakes on a fares hike planned for January.
She said: “After weeks of misery, people in Scotland deserve to know there is light at the end of the tunnel with a fare freeze in 2017. The SNP should back Labour’s plan.”
The state of Scotland’s railways was raised at First Minister’s Questions a day after Transport Minister Humza Yousaf was forced to make a statement to MSPs on the issue.
There has been widespread criticism of the reliability of ScotRail trains since Dutch firm Abellio took over the franchise, and Mr Yousaf was pressed to publish the full details of an improvement plan put in place after services slipped below agreed standards.
Ms Sturgeon announced on Thursday that ScotRail will publish the action plan, which contains 246 separate measures, within days.
She made the commitment after Ms Davidson told her Mr Yousaf’s statement had left key questions “unanswered”, adding: “He says ScotRail is well under way to implementing 250 action points for improvement, but he won’t tell anyone what they are.
“And it’s not the first time. A month ago he told MSPs on a parliamentary committee he would come back to them with an answer. Yesterday, when asked again, he had nothing more to say.
“So can the First Minister give a commitment today, will her Government publish those 250 action points or not?”
Ms Sturgeon said: “Yes. ScotRail will publish them within the next few days.”
Ms Davidson welcomed that commitment, but added: “Of course it would have been better if the Transport Minister had been able to give the same clarity yesterday.
“Even the First Minister would admit that this week the rail networks have been in a shambles.
“Commuters standing on platforms have watched as the Scottish Government blamed the train operator for the mess, and the train operator has said that the Scottish Government is responsible for how many seats are available and therefore how much overcrowding exists.”
While the Scottish Government is working on putting together a public sectorbid to take over the running of services from Abellio, Ms Davidson said thecurrent contract has “at least six more years to run”.
She told Ms Sturgeon: “The question passengers want an answer to is pretty simple – when they’ve seen the events of the last week, over the next six years how can they have any confidence at all that this deal is going to work?”
But the First Minister told her both she and the Transport Minister are pressing for improvements from the rail operator.
The SNP leader said: “Humza Yousaf made it very clear yesterday that what we are doing, pressing ScotRail to deliver, are ongoing improvements to their performance.
“The contract that is in place right now targets ScotRail with making sure that 91 out of every 100 trains run within the recognised industry standard for punctuality. At the moment their performance is 89 out of 100. That is not good enough.
“So the various action points that are covered in this plan are about improving that service and about beginning to see improvements in that service immediately.”
While a summary of the action points is already on the ScotRail website, Ms Sturgeon said the “full details” of the 246 measures will be “published over the next few days”.
She added: “What they cover are improvements to infrastructure, improvements to the ScotRail fleet and improvements to operations.
“Of course all of this is backed by an investment of £5 billion over the remainder of this decade in improving our rail services.”
Regarding the public sector bid to take over the running of the service, she said this had been a commitment in the SNP manifesto.
“We haven’t had the powers to do this previously but we will now have the powers, so we said we would make sure there was an option that when the franchise is next up for renewal, to ensure that there is a public service bid able to compete for that franchise,” she told MSPs.
“Now I know the Tories are no friends of the public sector, privatisation is and always has been the watch word of the Tories, but we want to make sure there is a public service bid able to compete the next time the franchise comes up for renewal.”
She added: “In terms of capacity on our railways, we are working towards plans that will deliver 200 new services, 20,000 more seats per day and better journey times. That’s what we’re purchasing with the £5 billion of investment that we’re putting into our railways.
“I should say about 60% of the cost of running our railways in Scotland comes from Government funding, that compares to about 20% south of the border.”
She also stated that while current rail performance is “not as good as we want it to be”, it is “slightly better” in Scotland than the UK average.
Ms Dugdale urged the First Minister to freeze regulated rail fares, which are due to rise by up to 1.9% in January – a move which she said would increase the cost of an Edinburgh to Glasgow annual season ticket by more than £71.
The Labour leader said: “I think passengers deserve a break and that’s why today Labour is publishing a plan to freeze all regulated rail fares next year.
“Surely the First Minister agrees with us that people deserve a break. She has the power to give them one, so will she back Labour’s call for a 2017 rail fare freeze?”
Ms Dugdale said the proposal is “serious” and has been costed by independent experts at the Scottish Parliament.
She said: “They have estimated that it would cost as little as £2 million, that’s the equivalent of two months of Abellio profit.
“People are fed up with expensive, overcrowded and unreliable trains and the SNP are desperate to talk tough about what action they might take in 2022, but passengers left stranded on freezing platforms this morning need a break now.
“So doesn’t the First Minister agree with me that after weeks of misery, passengers in Scotland deserve to know that there is light at the end of the tunnel with a fare freeze in 2017?”
The First Minister said the Government will consider any proposal put forward.
She said: “We will particularly look to see how that proposal is being paid for because we have an investment package that I have spoken about that is important we are able to implement and deliver.
“Of course we do not want to see rail fares increase any more than is absolutely necessary. That’s why we at the moment have increases in rail fares that are at their lowest level since powers over railway were devolved to this Parliament, since 2005.
“We see peak time rail fare increases limited to inflation, off peak rail fare increases are actually limited to inflation minus 1%, so that is the discipline we exert on rail fares.
“We will consider any proposals but above all else we will make sure we have fairness around the funding of our railways so that we can carry out the investments that are required to make sure that standards do improve on our railways.”
