TRANSPORT Minister Humza Yousaf has rejected growing calls for him to resign following severe disruption on the rail network as he met commuters to hear their concerns.
Train drivers’ union Aslef has urged First Minister Nicola Sturgeon to sack Mr Yousaf over what it described as a “rail crisis” .
It follows recent concerns over the performance of train operator ScotRail and serious disruption on the rail network in the Central Belt on Thursday.
But Mr Yousaf said yesterday he is “certainly not” stepping down, and is monitoring daily the performance plan set up for the train operator.
The minister observed ScotRail operations and talked to passengers during the morning commute at Glasgow Central and Glasgow Queen Street stations yesterday.
Mr Yousaf said: “My job is to make sure the railways are running, to make sure that buses are as efficient as possible, to make sure our trunk road network is moving.
“I’m committed to doing that job, as you would imagine I am. I’ll be monitoring things absolutely closely.
“Yes of course there’s an apology there for commuters disrupted yesterday but an assurance from ScotRail, from me, that we are monitoring things closely and I expect improvements to happen and happen immediately.”
A train breakdown in Edinburgh on Thursday morning caused travel woes for commuters with no services able to get in or out of the capital for several hours.
Ms Sturgeon apologised for the disruption after Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale raised the issue at First Minister’s Questions.
The train broke down between Waverley and Haymarket stations, which ScotRail told the First Minister was “probably the worst place in the country” for it to happen.
The incident was the latest in a string of performance problems to hit the rail network, which forced ScotRail to produce a performance improvement plan in September at the request of Transport Scotland after punctuality and reliability fell below target.
Nearly 14,000 people have already called for ScotRail operator Abellio to have its contract terminated early if performance does not improve. The online petition puts added pressure on the firm to reverse its worsening punctuality.
ScotRail is also suffering from increasing overcrowding as passenger numbers increase but new fleets of trains are still at least a year away. It carries more than seven million passengers a month, which has increased by one third over the last decade.
The company’s 10-year franchise to 2025, which started last year, can be ended in 2022 if it fails to meet targets. The latest figures showed ScotRail’s punctuality and reliability was 90.8 per cent in the four weeks to September 17. The target is 92.5 per cent.
The “public performance measure” comprises the proportion of trains arriving within five minutes of schedule and the proportion which run.
The firm blamed bad weather last winter, and having to add extra carriages to Fife-Edinburgh trains from other lines during the closure of the Forth Road Bridge last December.
A spokeswoman for the ScotRail Alliance said: “We hosted Transport Minister Humza Yousaf when he visited to see our operations through the peak at Glasgow Central and Glasgow Queen Street stations.
“We are in the midst of a period of immense change as Scotland’s railway undergoes the biggest improvement since Victorian times.”
Alliance managing director Phil Verster has pledged to learn from the Edinburgh breakdown and apologised for the disruption.
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