SCOTRAIL has admitted staff shortages which has caused major disruption to train services for nearly two months is still continuing to affect their operations.

It comes as the transport staff union TSSA criticised ScotRail's service as "now beyond a joke" after passengers complained of fainting and panic attacks through overcrowded trains during the launch of Six Nations rugby in Edinburgh.

Reports compiled by transport staff union TSSA over issues to services between the Central Belt, Inverness and Aberdeen also referred to children sitting on the floor outside toilets, OAPs having to stand for hours and adults crying.

But it has emerged that ScotRail is still cutting the number of carriages - a key reason for overcrowding - on over 70 services on Monday, primarily due to the continuing shortage of train crew.

And the train operator run by Dutch transport firm Abellio said that the staff training that is the root of the disruption since December 9, when the winter timetable was launched, is continuing to affect their performance.

Many staff are continuing to undergo training on new trains introduced for the timetable launch.

ScotRail has said that was partly caused by the late arrival of the new Hitachi Class 385 and high-speed InterCity trains The train operator says the lag in staff training was made worse as a result of RMT industrial action over a pay dispute that lasted several weeks, and was resolved over eight weeks ago.

The train operator had said its new electric and high-speed trains including the environmentally friendly Hitachi Class 385 stock would allow shorter journey times, more seats and more services on updated routes to build "the best railway Scotland has ever had".

But passengers bombarded ScotRail with complaints about skip-stopping and overcrowded trains since the timetable launched, while an estimated average of 80 services were cancelled per day in the first week-and-a-half of ScotRail’s new winter timetable.

While the number of cancelled services has been reduced, passengers continue to lodge complaints with ScotRail about overcrowded trains as carriages are cut due to the staff shortages.

ScotRail runs more than 2,400 services every single weekday and the operator says that every available train they have is out on the network to get customers where they need to be.

A ScotRail spokesman said: “This has been a challenging time for Scotland’s railway. While we know that our performance has not been good enough, it is encouraging to see our punctuality continuing to improve across the country."

In mid-January ScotRail published figures that showed its punctuality had improved over the previous month despite hundreds of cancellations after the winter timetable was launched.

A total of 84.2 per cent of its trains got to their destination within five minutes of schedule in the four weeks to 5 January compared to 83.4 per cent over the previous four weeks.

But the disruption prompted the ministers to give the operator a deadline of February 19 to submit a plan to address falling performance levels which if unsuccessful could result in a breach of contract and lead to Abellio losing the ScotRail franchise early.

New figures show that staff shortages have caused the cancellation of thousands of ScotRail services since April last year.

The scale of disruption caused by staff being trained how to operate new trains saw an average of 46 services a day axed towards the end of 2018.

Data released by track operator Network Rail shows that in 2017/18 a total of 838 ScotRail services were cancelled or did not complete at least half of their journey because they did not have enough crew.

However, between April 2018 and 16 January this year (the latest available point data was available) a total of 2,691 ScotRail services were cancelled for the same reason.

The ScotRail spokesman added: “Everyone at the ScotRail Alliance is working flat out to provide customers with the service they deserve. We are training more than 20 drivers and conductors every day, and this will deliver continual improvements in the coming weeks and months.”

TSSA general secretary Manuel Cortes said of the latest complaints: “ScotRail’s service is now beyond a joke. Passengers should be able to buy a ticket and know they can expect a seat for a four-and -a-half-hour journey from Edinburgh to Inverness. But there’s a reason passengers are now referring to the nation’s railway as “ScotFail.”

“You don’t need to be a rugby fanatic to be aware of the Six Nations. The date’s been in the diary for months and Abellio ScotRail should have arranged extra trains to support fans wishing to travel to the match. Instead even pensioners were forced to stand, whilst children sat on the floor by the toilets.

“Nicola Sturgeon should be hauling Abellio and Matheson over the coals for their failures this and every weekend."

A ScotRail spokesman added: “The Six Nations always draw a big crowd, and to help meet the demand we added more seats for travelling fans.

“We know one of the biggest concerns is busy trains, and although we can’t add extra carriages to every train, all available trains were in use and our customer got where they needed to be.”

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