TRAIN operator ScotRail has been fined £483,000 for failing to meet strict standards on providing services.
Inspectors imposed the penalty after the franchise fell short in a number of performance indicators, including station toilets, ticket machines, and trains’ cleanliness, during July and September.
Cash penalties or rewards are issued by Transport Scotland depending on performance against a benchmark under the Service Quality Incentive Regime (Squire).
The latest performance results come as ScotRail, operated by Dutch firm Abellio, has faced criticism for delayed, cancelled and overcrowded trains.
They show targets were not met in five out of 17 areas of station performance, and 10 out of 17 quality categories for trains.
Squire inspectors audit 353 stations and about 200 trains every four weeks.
ScotRail, which has been hit with a number of performance- related fines in recent years, achieved an overall score of 92.21 per cent against a benchmark of 93.12 per cent.
Transport Minister Humza Yousaf said: “The Squire regime is a fundamental part of our efforts to improve the passenger experience and it is the toughest regime of its kind in the UK.
“The latest quarter two results show a combined penalty of £483,000, and penalties to date for ScotRail’s performance within Squire currently stand at £2.2 million.
“This indicates further improvements can, and will, be made in terms of aspects of service delivery such as improvements in station shelters, train doors, train toilets and train announcements.”
Scotland’s national train operator was previously fined £265,000 for performance failures between July and September last year.
And in August last year it was revealed First ScotRail had been fined a total of £576,000 for Squire failures in its last year as franchise holder.
Other punishments have included more than £370,000 in fines for failures during the 12-month period to June 2012.
ScotRail Alliance managing director Phil Verster said hundreds of millions of pounds have been earmarked for investment.
He added: “When we took over the franchise, we signed up to an even tougher Squire scheme than had been in place in previous years.
“We did this because we know that being part of a tough scheme will mean our staff will always be focused on delivering the best possible service to our customers.
“These figures show that, even although we are delivering in lots of areas, we can never stop striving to improve even further.
“We have announced our largest ever train improvement plan. Over the course of the next few years we will be spending £475 million on new and refurbished trains as well as great services like enhanced wi-fi and at-seat power sockets.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel