WHETHER or not there are leaves on the line, one of Scotland's favourite sports each year as the colder weather arrives is to have a go at the operator of the Scotrail franchise, currently held by Abellio.

The media vents its moral outrage at Abellio on behalf of “fare-paying passengers”.The unions tell us again that any problem is as a result of failed privatisation.The Scottish Government is caught in the headlights and starts mumbling about taking the railways back into public ownership - to hurrahs all round.

The recent troubles on the railways actually lay bare a lot of Scotland’s problems.

First, our enduring love of subsidy and the mistaken assumption that the subsidy has no cost. Those fare paying passengers are in fact only on average paying for about half of the cost to provide their service. Rail passengers are heavily subsidised by the taxpayer. The taxpayer is not some vague concept - it’s you and me.

Second, the continuing negative and distorting influence of union dinosaurs. They tell anybody who will listen that rail privatisation has been a failure. Really? They must have been somewhere else in the 1970s and 1980s when publicly-owned bodies such as railways gave passengers appalling service and cost a fortune because of gross inefficiency.

Privatisation of the railway operators has in fact been a stunning success - incomparably better service, lower subsidies and huge growth in passenger numbers.

Change is coming on the railways - who would bet against driverless trains in 30 years’ time , perhaps much sooner (they work excellently on the Docklands Light Railway) but it is clear that the unions will be there fighting for their members - and against the public.

Any business, public or private, should respect their employees but the idea that a railway should be run for the benefit of its employees is an idea which should be consigned to the expensive dustbin of socialist history.

Finally, the Scottish Government, yet again failing to show leadership and courage. When the ScotRail franchise was last let, all bidding franchise operators had to commit to no compulsory redundancies throughout the franchise and to protect rail staff pensions and travel rights. If Abellio invests in equipment which allows a job to be done with fewer people then it should employ fewer people to do it and therefore need less subsidy from us the taxpayer.

Why do the public sector still have such generous pension arrangements paid for by taxpayers when those in private employment do not? The Scottish Government wouldn’t grasp this nettle just as it shot Abellio in the back when it tried to stand up to the unions to enable a more efficient way of opening and closing train doors.

The least attractive part of the Scottish Government’s response was to join in the Abellio bashing when it knew the truth. Abellio provides the level of services specified by the Scottish Government.

When the rail infrastructure breaks (the primary cause of delays) it is nothing to do with Abellio. When a train breaks down it is not one which Abellio has bought or brought with it from Holland, it is clapped out equipment which it has inherited.

The last thing we need is to take back the operation of Scotland’s railways into state ownership and even more union control.

Abellio should be given a chance to perform and the Scottish Government should back them up and not join in the witch-hunt.