Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid) 03 February 2022
I remind members of my entry in the register of interests.
I welcome the minister to her new post and ask her, as she takes it up, to take a fresh look at the glaring inconsistencies in the Government’s transport policy. It is no good going to the 26th United Nations climate change conference of the parties—COP26—in Glasgow, boasting of a
“world-leading commitment to cut greenhouse gas emissions”—[Official Report, 13 January 2022; c 57.]
while savaging the greenest form of public transport that we have. It is no good coming to Parliament to unveil route maps that are aimed at “driving down car use” if, at the same time, public transport alternatives are being decimated.
On the very same day that the SNP and Greens announced their co-operation agreement for a “fairer” and “greener” Scotland, ScotRail announced a plan to axe 300 train services a day—not temporarily but permanently. On the very same day that the previous transport minister stood up in Parliament to defend those public transport cuts, the rest of the world was marking world car free day. You couldn’t make it up!
Our message to the new Minister for Transport is simple: it is that there is still time. There is still time to listen to the RMT, the Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen, the Transport Salaried Staffs Association and Unite the union, who tell us that our railways, in public ownership and run for passengers not profit, are part of the solution to the climate crisis, not part of the problem. There is still time for the minister to understand that there is something profoundly unethical about Abellio conducting a consultation for a service that in less than 60 days’ time it will no longer run. No wonder people think that it is being paid to do the Scottish Government’s dirty work for it.
Last month, the First Minister came to Parliament to defend the plans to cut ticket offices and jobs at 117 stations across Scotland. She declared that
“the ticket process is now automated”—[Official Report, 20 January 2022; c 24.]
and that that was “modernisation”. In the region that I represent, that “modernisation” means that there is a 30 per cent cut in cover at Airdrie, Falkirk Grahamston and Polmont, a 50 per cent cut at Coatbridge, a 60 per cent cut at Shotts and a 78 per cent cut at Cumbernauld.
On the question of automation, the RMT has just surveyed its members. This is what one of them wrote:
“Station staff are first responders. We are the safety net for vulnerable people. We are first aiders. We are there for disabled assists. We are there for disruptions. We are there for young girls who get harassed on our platforms. We are there for cleaning and ensuring that the station is a safe environment. We do not just sell tickets.”
The removal of staff from our railway stations will not only deter passengers; it will also deny them. So, has the plan been equality-proofed? What about elderly passengers, women passengers travelling alone at night and people with learning disabilities? Do they not deserve a good-quality public transport service that is accessible to them?
I close by quoting the minister herself on the subject of the Levenmouth rail link. We were told that
“it will bring jobs; it will bring investment; and it will widen the horizons of the next generation.”—[Official Report, 27 September 2017; c 77.]
The cuts to Scotland’s rail services that are being defended by a Government that she is now part of will cost jobs, drive out investment and narrow the horizons of the next generation. In that same speech to Parliament, the minister quoted Jimmy Reid, who said:
“whoever takes the important economic decisions in society ipso facto determines the social priorities of that society.”
He was right, so now that the minister is in power she should take that advice, reverse the cuts, change the Government’s priorities, save those jobs and invest in Scotland’s railways.
16:19