AS the debate over whether Scotland's railways should be nationalised intensifies, ScotRail's performance continues to come under the microscope.
ScotRail has drafted in Transpennine Express managing director Nick Donovan to review how performance can be improved after it failed to hit a target despite an improvement plan being in force for more than a year.
While the train operator accentuated the positives out of the latest punctuality figures which include claiming it remains the best performing large operator in the UK, data shows that for the 12 months to January 6, 90.4 per cent of trains met a target of arriving within at least five minutes of their scheduled time, against a target of 91.7 per cent. It was claimed they had missed a key performance target amid "challenging" autumn and winter conditions on the railways.
Nick Donovan (right)
In the 12 months to January 6, 90.4 per cent of trains met a target of arriving within at least five minutes of their scheduled time, against a target of 91.7 per cent.
The figure was 83.4 per cent for the four-week period ending January 6.
Last week, Mr Yousaf declared that Scotrail performance "hasn't been to the standard I'd expect", was continuing to seek improvements and felt that Mr Donovan's experience in railways across the UK will be of "great use".
Recent Scotrail performance hasn't been to standard I'd expect even during challenging Autumn/Winter conditions. This morning peak perfomance is at 93% -much better but passengers need & expect consistency.
— Humza Yousaf (@HumzaYousaf) January 10, 2018
Putting together plans for coming months to ensure performance improves pic.twitter.com/9yoBAbw6FC
To that end, I am pleased Scotrail have drafted in an independent expert to review how performance can be improved. Nick Donovan's experience in railways across the UK will be of great use.
— Humza Yousaf (@HumzaYousaf) January 13, 2018
To that end, I am pleased Scotrail have drafted in an independent expert to review how performance can be improved. Nick Donovan's experience in railways across the UK will be of great use.
— Humza Yousaf (@HumzaYousaf) January 13, 2018
ScotRail had highlighted incidents that had impacted on performance, including signalling and points failures.
The latest performance statistics came two weeks after think tank Reform Scotland said Scotland needs to take control of the railway network after it said more than half of all train delays are caused by problems such as faulty tracks or signalling.
More ScotRail services would be on time if the operator of Scotland’s railway infrastructure – which is currently run by public body Network Rail – was answerable to Holyrood ministers and not to the UK Government, the think tank said.
Video: 'Ditch the Dutch' calls for full nationalisation of Scotland's railways is 'off track'
But there is continuing debate over whether Dutch public transport Abellio should continue to have the Scotrail contract and whether it should even go to a publicly owned company.
Mr Yousaf is known to be preparing a public sector bid to take over Scotland’s railways, when the contract held by Abellio ends which will be 2022 at the earliest or till 2025 by mutual consent.
But with the support of a petition which has now been supported by more than 21,000, Manuel Cortes, the general secretary of the transport staff union TSSA has said the minister is "dragging his heels" on delivery and has called on the minister to take "the bold political decision" for full nationalisation of ScotRail without recourse to any bidding "preferably by using a break clause in 2019".
He believed a publicly owned company could lose in a bidding war with private companies in 2022 and that the minister should take action to institute full public ownership immediately.
A Common Weal think tank analysis for the TSSA transport workers union said that nationalised Scottish railways would lead to average fare cuts of 6.5 per cent across the service and the "potential" to provide the same source of "collective pride" that is felt about the NHS.
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