'There will be challenges' on Scotland's railways over autumn and winter, says transport secretary

Mr Matheson sidestepped calls for Abellio to lose the franchise early and for the railways to be nationalised, indicating that it was a matter reserved for Westminster.

Scottish Labour's transport spokesman Colin Smyth insisted that they had the power to end the franchise early - to bring it under public ownership by 2022.

He said: “This is a failing franchise, operating within a failed franchising model. The Scottish Government has the power to end this franchise early."

A Common Weal think tank report last year said ScotRail could be taken over by a public-sector body as soon as 2020 with the new operator beginning in 2022 - if the current operator Abellio is judged to be failing to meet its contractual obligations.

Mr Matheson was quizzed by MSPs after the latest Office of Road and Rail reliability analysis found ScotRail cancellations and significant lateness between April and June this year was the worst it has been since records began in 1997/98.

The ORR said that problems linked to severe weather had risen by nearly three-and-a-half times year on year.

The ScotRail Alliance - the partnership between the train operator Abellio ScotRail and the infrastructure managers Network Rail Scotland - has announced it was spending over £13m to help reduce the impact of autumn and winter conditions.

READ MORE: "Outrage" as ScotRail records worst reliability performance for 20 years

Mr Matheson has acknowledged the investment, which will attempt to ensure railway lines are kept clear of leaves and vegetation while coating the track with a glue-like layer to help train wheels grip the tracks.

‘Leaf fall’ teams of maintenance staff based at key points across the network are to be used to clean specific locations where drivers report poor conditions. And there will be an "increased programme" to remove line side vegetation and trees which may pose a danger.

Mr Matheson told MSPs: "There is no doubt there will continue to be challenges during the course of the autumn and winter within our railway network. "What they have assured me of is they have learned some of the lessons from last year and from previous years and made additional investments to try and address some of these issues to help support through this autumn and this winter and I hope that will produce better results going forward. But time will tell."

He added: "I am aware that ScotRail isn't performing as well as would be expected and demanded by the Scottish Government and customers, however, it is impossible to compare ScotRail's reliability today with that of 28 years ago, given the very significant increase over the past two decades in passenger numbers, seats provided and the introduction of new stations and routes.

"However, the Scottish Government continues to work closely with both partners of the ScotRail Alliance to ensure the 20 recommendations contained in their performance improvement plan are delivered.

"I will tell you what we will do is we will focus on making sure that we continue to make the very significiant investment into our railways her in Scotland, to make sure we have modern rolling stock.. and will continue to make sure we will deliver in the improvements we want to see in our railways and will leave on the kid on politics to the Labour Party."

The ORR quarterly data showed that 2.9% of all services were judged to have resulted in “significant disruption to at least some passengers” when cancellations and significant lateness were measured.

This was 34% higher in the first quarter of 2018-19 than in the same period of 2017-18 – with this mainly due to a 347% increase in cancellations and delays attributed to severe weather.

Some 90.3 of trains arrived at their destination within five minutes of the planned time in the first quarter of the year.

The analysis revealed that punctuality failures attributed to Network Rail, rose by 51% over a year. Failings blamed on Network Rail’s management of the network rose by 56%.

A ScotRail spokesman said: "We understand the frustration of our customers when things go wrong, and we are working hard to improve the service we provide. The most recent figures show that more than nine out of ten trains met their punctuality target over the previous four weeks.”

A Transport Scotland spokesman added: "The significant increase in Network Rail’s infrastructure issues in Scotland and the operational timetable crisis being experienced by cross border operators in England have impacted on ScotRail’s performance and are considered under the terms of the contract and its application of performance criteria. Network Rail remains a nationalised body under the ownership of the UK Government.  

“As has been stated on many previous occasions, ministers expect the ScotRail Alliance to work closely together to build on lessons learned going forward. We should not lose sight of the transformational process underway on our railways including the infrastructure enhancements, as well as the introduction of new and fully re-furbished rolling stock with the additional services that they will provide. All this is building the best railway Scotland has ever had and, with that, overall performance should improve moving forward.”