Figures highlighted by the Scottish Conservatives show how in the past nine years ScotRail has caused nearly three million minutes of delays to its own trains.
Disruption caused by staff shortages and train breakdowns has increased since 2011.
The Scottish Tories’ transport spokesperson, Graham Simpson, referred to the figures as he discussed the party’s election pledge for automatic refunds for delayed passengers via a new smart travel card.
The figures show an increase from 289,000 minutes in 2011-12 to 367,000 in 2019-20, after peaking at 369,000 the previous year.
READ MORE: Scottish train services: ScotRail to reduce carriage numbers
However, as stated in The Scotsman they were outweighed by delays caused by Network Rail, which owns all the non-moving parts of the network.
Mr Simpson said: “These delay figures will come as little surprise to passengers who have had to endure frustrating delays for far too long on ScotRail services.
“The level of service on ScoRail trains has simply not been good enough.
“Our pledge of a Scottish smart travel card will automatically refund passengers when they go through the misery of delayed or cancelled services.
"It will also allow them to use any form of public transport across Scotland with one simple contactless card.
“The SNP seem to think nationalising services will be a silver bullet for issues like this, but they have failed to outline exactly how that will fix these problems.”
SNP Transport Secretary Michael Matheson said: "The majority of delays on our railways are caused by infrastructure issues, which is a reserved matter and in the hands of the Tories.
"Making improvements in our rail service also means improvements in rail infrastructure, which remains reserved to Westminster.
"We continue to urge the UK Government to devolve these powers to deliver a better service for the people of Scotland and it is time for the Tories to stop playing political games and back those calls."
ScotRail said it was unable to comment due to the Scottish Election since it is now effectively run by the Scottish Government.
However, it stated that there had been significant improvements during 2020-21 when performance was above target.
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