I have called on the Transport Secretary, Fiona Hyslop MSP, to directly intervene and demand that an action plan is put in place to fix Fife rail services after a response from ScotRail admitted the services provided in Fife “simply has not been good enough”.
I wrote to Joanne Maguire, Managing Director of ScotRail, in August to raise my concerns with the declining standard of services in Fife, including an unacceptable emergency timetable, alongside delays, cancellations and short-form trains.
These issues combined are driving people away from using rail services as they cannot rely on what can only be described as a substandard offering from a national operator.
In response to my letter, ScotRail said they are aware that “the service we have been providing for customers in Fife simply has not been good enough” and they are “working hard to rectify this” to ensure that “we can deliver a level of service to customers in Fife which matches what we deliver elsewhere in the country”.
ScotRail also said that despite implementing a reduced timetable as “a means of providing greater certainty for our customers at a time when we are experiencing a shortage of train drivers as a result of a dispute over pay”, they were “still experiencing some ad hoc complications which result in short notice cancellations”.
I then wrote to the Transport Secretary to ask for her direct intervention – stating “I cannot understand why people are being expected to pack in like sardines or are left at the station when they simply cannot get on [peak time rail services].”
I also wrote, “As I am sure you can imagine, your announcement that you are reintroducing peak fares has simply added insult to injury with rail users asking why on earth should they pay more for such a poor level of service.”
I am calling for an action plan to be put in place to quickly get the level of service up to an acceptable standard.
I have given credit where it is due to ScotRail in the past but after short-lived improvements, unfortunately standards have once again severely declined.
I am inundated with messages from constituents who are having to cram onto overcrowded services or simply cannot get on the train, and those affected by delays and cancellations.
As a rail user myself, I do also experience this overcrowding which is simply unacceptable – as one constituent put it to me, is it acceptable that she is forced to be cramped up against strangers, putting her in a very uncomfortable position?
While I am glad that ScotRail are admitting the issues they have created, I don’t have much confidence in their abilities to get a grip on this situation which is totally out of hand and will only drive people away from trains and back to car use.
This is why I have asked the Transport Secretary to directly intervene in finding solutions to the issues plaguing Fife rail services and take full advantage of having control over Scotland’s nationalised rail operator.
| Text of letter from Alex Rowley MSP to Joanne Maguire, Managing Director of ScotRail Dear Joanne, I am writing further to my correspondence with you in June this year. While I was pleased at that point to see some improvement to services and wrote to you to thank you for your commitment to ongoing improvement to rail travel at peak times on Fife services, I am unfortunately writing again as I have been contacted by a number of constituents and experienced for myself that this improvement has been short-lived. Fife services, like services across the ScotRail network, have not only been hit by an unacceptable “emergency timetable” that is causing commuters great difficulty, but are also experiencing delays, cancellations and short-form trains that combined are driving people away from using rail services as they cannot rely on what can only be described as a substandard offering from a national operator. I am regularly being contacted by constituents who are forced to stand for the duration of their journey due to overcrowding on short-form trains and others who tell me they have made the move back to driving for their commutes as trains are not reliable enough to depend on for essential travel. That these issues are now plaguing services on a daily basis at a time where the public is about to endure the reintroduction of peak fare pricing at a higher price point than when they were last in place is simply unacceptable. How can ScotRail justify charging the Scottish public more for a lesser service? I am also concerned about the continuing practice of moving older train stock onto Fife’s routes when they are made available through upgrades to stock in other parts of the country. It is essential if we are to encourage more people out of cars and onto rail services to tackle our climate goals that our rail service is accessible, affordable, available and reliable. As such, can you please respond to the above detailing clearly how ScotRail will urgently tackle these ongoing issues. I look forward to hearing from you. Kind regards, Alex Rowley MSP |
| Text of response received from ScotRail Dear Alex, Joanne Maguire, our Managing Director, has asked me to thank you for your email of 27 August, and to reply to you on her behalf. Firstly, we know that the service we have been providing for customers in Fife simply has not been good enough. We’re working hard to rectify this and will continue to make changes to our service to ensure that we can deliver a level of service to customers in Fife which matches what we deliver elsewhere in the country. We are appreciative for the feedback that customers did feel the improvements we made in June was a step in the right direction. As your email touches upon, we introduced a temporary timetable in July as a means of providing greater certainty for our customers at a time when we are experiencing a shortage of train drivers as a result of a dispute over pay. Recognising the service improvements we had made the previous month, we designed the temporary timetable to retain the vast majority of daytime services across Fife. Unfortunately, we are still experiencing some ad hoc complications which result in short notice cancellations. ScotRail is currently recruiting 160 new drivers each year to improve resilience, this is the largest number of train drivers we have ever recruited in one year and will make a big difference to our reliance on rest day and overtime working. However, driver training is extensive, and while recruitment is ongoing, some rest day working, and overtime, is still needed to deliver a normal timetable. Teams across ScotRail continue to work hard to ensure that there is as little disruption for passengers as possible. With the challenges we are facing with staff shortages at present, we are making every effort to protect the services which most passengers use. Since the temporary timetable was introduced ScotRail has added around 30 extra services and more carriages providing 11,000 additional seats each day. We recognise the temporary timetable is making travel more challenging for many customers and will continue to take every opportunity to improve services within the limits of our constrained resources at this time. With regards to fares, the vast majority of fares in Scotland are covered by Transport Scotland fare regulation, and these include season tickets, peak and off peak fares. In setting fares, ScotRail take many factors into consideration, including fare regulation, as set out above, and market conditions, geography, service offering, and target markets to name a few. You may be aware that ScotRail has one of the oldest train fleets in Britain, all of our existing fleets, with the exception of the class 380 and 385 electric trains, will be life expired by 2040. New trains, not just in Fife but across the country, are an important element of us playing our part in the Scottish Government’s green agenda. The Scottish Government recently announced the first part of this process having granted ScotRail approval to tender for new Intercity trains. We will update our fleet in Fife as part of our suburban rolling stock programme, we await approval from the Scottish Government on this. Thank you for taking the time to write. I hope you find this response helpful, but should you require any further information, please do not hesitate to contact me. Yours sincerely Scott Prentice Strategy & Planning Director ScotRail |
Letter from Alex Rowley MSP to Cabinet Secretary for Transport, Fiona Hyslop MSP
Letter-from-Alex-Rowley-MSP-to-Cabnet-Secretary-for-Transport-Issues-with-Fife-Train-Services-16-September-2024
