SCOTRAIL has come under fire after admitting it will not hit its official punctuality targets for another year despite an £18m plan to improve its poor performance.

Admitting it its recent service to travellers had been “unacceptable”, it said cancellations should fall throughout 2019, but it would not formally “exit breach” until May 2020.

The train operator also revealed many of the delays and cancellations which enraged passengers last year were caused by key staff quitting to take better-paid work elsewhere.

ScotRail said the number of drivers leaving it in 2018 was more than double the previous two years, as people went to other train operators “who offer higher rates of pay”.

However ScotRail censored the full details of the exodus from its Remedial Plan.

The plan follows the Scottish Government issuing a remedial notice to ScotRail in December, after especially poor performance in and around Edinburgh.

If ScotRail now fails to deliver on the improvements in its plan, Dutch-owned Abellio, which has held the 10-year ScotRail franchise since 2015, could be stripped of the contract.

Nicola Sturgeon said on Thursday that Abellio-ScotRail was “in the last chance saloon”.

ScotRail said customers would see significant improvements from the £18m plan, including the hiring of 55 extra drivers and 30 conductors during 2019.

However drivers take 12 months to train fully, so their impact will not be felt immediately.

It said there would be an increased focus on fleet reliability, including three additional classic high-speed trains being leased, close working with Network Rail to resolve faults, upgraded upgraded customer information screens at 16 stations, and a new training measures.

ScotRail blamed recent rotten performance on the late delivery of new trains, insufficient crew, a union dispute, a loss of drivers, bad weather, and track and signal failures.

The plan said the cancellations in the Suburban East sector, which triggered the remedial action, had already started to improve.

But it added: “However, the nature of a MAA [moving annual average] measure (12 months of historic data) is that it takes a year for poor performance to drop out of the numbers.

“For this reason, although we will deliver improved performance sooner, our MAA is not expected to exit Breach until May 2020.

“We expect our Express Other sector to follow a similar trajectory and exit date.”

The performance and reliability measure is due to exit breach in March 2020.

ScotRail Alliance Managing Director Alex Hynes said: “Improving the service our customers receive is the priority for everyone at ScotRail, working with Network Rail and key suppliers.

“I am confident that this plan will deliver significant improvements on Scotland’s Railway.

“We have worked hard to identify specific areas to focus our efforts where they will have the most impact. The funds we have invested in this plan is a demonstration of our commitment to delivering the service our customers expect and deserve.”

Scottish Labour said ScotRail were “running rings around the SNP government” and called for a return to public ownership of the railways.

Transport spokesperson Colin Smyth said: “Only ScotRail could publish a performance improvement plan which admits it will still be breaching the franchise for another year and doesn’t say when it expects to hit the actual target.

"If the company were as good as running the railway as they are at running rings round SNP ministers then passengers would be getting a world class service at rock bottom prices.

"Instead we have overcrowded, overpriced trains that either run late or don't run at all.”

Tory MSP Jamie Greene said: “Any new investment in people or trains is welcome but the fact that these additional staff have not yet been recruited means passengers could be waiting months or even years before seeing any tangible improvements.

“Despite its many warm words, buried away at the back of the report is an acceptance it will be at least May 2020 before ScotRail has any hope of exiting its breach of the MAA performance targets it is currently missing.

“Of course we all want ScotRail to succeed but far from being ‘last chance saloon’ for ScotRail, this seems like a targetless, toothless and meagre attempt to buy time and will fill no-one with any confidence that things will drastically improve any time soon. The SNP government has truly missed a trick here.”

LibDem Mike Rumbles added: “The previous Transport Secretary heralded his ‘improvement plan’ in January last year. Now we have the current Transport Secretary’s ‘remedial plan’. “Has he any explanation as to why anyone should believe him that the Scottish Government's remedial plan will work when their improvement plan failed so miserably?

“The Scottish government should stop making excuses for ScotRail and terminate their contract at the first opportunity in April next year.”

Transport Secretary Michael Matheson said: “I have instructed my officials to ensure robust measures are put in place to monitor progress very closely and I expect to see a continued upward trend of performance improvement.

“I have also been clear that franchising in its current format doesn’t work and that is why I continue to push Scotland’s interests, including further devolution of rail powers, to the UK-wide Williams review. Rail must deliver a system of greater reliability for users – customers, businesses and stakeholders deserve this much."