A SENIOR ScotRail boss insists there is no threat of the firm losing its franchise or the network being nationalised – despite its recent reliability problems.

Abellio, the state-backed Dutch rail company, has been running the Scottish train network since winning the franchise from FirstGroup in April 2015.

Since then the franchise has been dogged by punctuality and reliability issues, with the most recent accounts for Abellio ScotRail confirming that its performance dipped in the year ending December 31, 2016.

While Abellio cited factors such as disruption caused by the renovation of Glasgow’s Queen Street Station, it led to an improvement plan being issued to the operator by Transport Scotland because its performance had fallen below the requirements of the franchise agreement.

The Herald:

(Dominic Booth, managing director, Abellio UK)

Asked whether there was any risk of Abellio ScotRail being forced to hand the franchise back, Dominic Booth, the managing director of Abellio UK, said: “No, not really no.

"Where we have fallen behind the performance improvement trajectory, then we are obviously required to put forward a plan to the minister [and] to the Scottish Government to recover that position, which we do. And we will obviously make sure we recover our performance again this year.

“Of course, in the end the Scottish Government can take decisions if we’re continuing to under-perform. But I think they realise we know what we are doing; we’re very, very expert, we are dedicated to our tasks and we’ll fix any issues that come up before us.”

Saturday Interview: Railway politics are all in a day's work for ScotRail chief Booth

The ScotRail franchise is a 10-year contract, which includes a potential break point after seven years. Abellio said ScotRail’s performance challenges have come as it implements what it describes as the biggest transformation of Scotland’s railways since the Victorian era, amid investment in electrifying overhead lines and new high-speed trains.

Accounts reveal the company was given a loan, worth £10 million, from its Netherlands-based parent group, after making a pre-tax loss of £2.7m.

The operator recently pointed to signs of improved performance on the network, with the most recent National Rail Passenger Survey, published last July, showed that 90 per cent of passengers were satisfied with their journeys in the spring. That was up from 83 per cent when the survey was last carried out in the previous autumn.

But earlier this month the operator drafted in railway consultant Nick Donovan to carry out an independent review its performance after it failed to hit a key target in the 12 months to January 6.

According to the data, 90.4 per cent of trains on ScotRail services arrived within five minutes of their scheduled time, against a target of 91.7 per cent. The figure slumped to 83.4 per cent for the four weeks to January 6, as the firm grappled with challenging winter conditions, prompting transport minister Humza Yousaf to state the performance “hasn’t been to the standard I’d expect”.

Mr Donovan, a former managing director of the TransPennine Express, is expected to provide a report on his findings in a “matter of weeks”.

Asked whether it was normal for rail operators such as Abellio to bring in consultants to review their performances, Mr Booth said: “Quite often. We examine our performance on a daily basis – what did we do yesterday, what could we do better tomorrow?

“But it’s quite normal for us to call in third parties to have a look at what we are doing. Are we missing anything? Are there any issues we can solve? It’s quite normal to call in [a] respected third party and get them to give us a report, and that’s what [ScotRail managing director] Alex Hynes in this case has decided to do.”

Saturday Interview: Railway politics are all in a day's work for ScotRail chief Booth

Meanwhile, on the prospect of public sector organisations such as state-backed ferry operator Calmac should run the ScotRail franchise in future, Mr Booth: “The railways are owned by in this case the Scottish Government, and they can decide to do what they want with them, whenever they want.

He added: “It’s not a privatised industry, it’s a government-owned entity, and they decide what they want to do with it. If the government decide to bring in a public-sector operator next time the contract is let, that’s their decision. As a company… we compete against public-sector bidders across Europe, so it’s not an issue for us really. It’s a decision for government.”