THE head of under fire ScotRail has admitted that criticism of the railways had become personal after details of his contract became the centre of media reports.
Announcing the firm had the second best punctuality rates in Britain, Phil Verster said he felt "personally scrutinised" when asked if criticism of ScotRail's performance had shifted onto him.
But he disregarded political campaigns to derail Abellio's 10-year franchise to run the country's main train operator and said the introduction of new trains in September would be a "game-changer".
Read more: Anger over £100,000 plan to seek public view of ScotRail
Mr Verster also refused to criticise Network Rail, the publicly-owned firm which maintains the railway infrastructure, including tracks and signalling, for their part in delays.
He said: "I am a customer of my own railway. I travel on it every day. And as a customer I'm not really interested in why I'm being delayed. The only thing that matters is I'm being delayed. That's my focus in my business as well."
His comments come as ScotRail announced its annual performance figures had risen to 90 per cent, with its punctuality the second best in the UK.
Official figures show the figures for on-time trains improving for the third year in a row.
ScotRail has announced that performance for the four weeks to January 7 is 89.7 per cent, six per cent better than last four weeks and 2.8 per cent better than same period last year, while the operator began trials with its new Class 385 trains last night.
Read more: Anger over £100,000 plan to seek public view of ScotRail
Labour, which has attacked Abellio's franchise amid claims of delays, crowded trains and overall passenger dissatisfaction, said ScotRail was "still not hitting its performance target" and that one train in 10 was failing to arrive within five minutes of the scheduled time.
At the weekend, one newspaper revealed details of Mr Verster's package to relocate to Scotland, including rent on his Edinburgh flat being paid for the year. It followed previous revelations about his salary and claims around hospitality.
He said: "I do feel that I have been personally scrutinised in the media. I expect this is just how it works. I know that my passion, my focus and that of the 7500 people in my business, is on the right stuff. And its not that type of thing.
"Obviously we have seen all of the campaigns, political campaigns included, about the railways and we see and observe that. But in the end the railway is about customers. We are not a political organisation. We are a customer organisation.
"From September this year, when our new trains come in, the railway will be a different place. And systematically, over the next two years, and which is starting imminently, the railways will be something Scotland and its passengers will be proud of."
The operator said the latest period rise was "part of a significant improvement in punctuality over the past four weeks, including the busy Christmas and Hogmanay period.
Read more: Anger over £100,000 plan to seek public view of ScotRail
It added that during the latest period, three significant disruptive events affected services including overhead line issues at Hyndland on Hogmanay and again on 6 January, and disruption caused when a child’s scooter was thrown onto overhead lines at Airdrie.
Scottish Labour transport spokesman Neil Bibby said: “2016 was a year of delays and disruption on Scotland’s railways. This year needs to be a year of change and improvement.
“(Transport minister) Humza Yousaf said he expected ScotRail to hit their performance targets by the end of March, yet here we have another set of figures showing contractual targets are still being missed. The clock is ticking for Humza Yousaf and ScotRail.
“Passengers are fed up with delayed, overcrowded and cancelled trains. That’s why Labour called for a fare freeze in 2017, which would benefit every single passenger.”
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