Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid) 03 February 2022
After 25 years in the private sector, ScotRail will finally return to public hands on 31 March. Scottish Labour welcomes the return of ScotRail to public ownership. We called for that. We supported that in the Parliament and we long campaigned for it alongside passengers, trade unions and the Scottish Co-operative Party. I remind members why: it was to strengthen accountability, to reinvest profits back into services and to make public transport a true public service again.
The Scottish National Party had no choice but to bring ScotRail back into public ownership after the abject failure of the Abellio deal. The deal that the SNP heralded as “world leading” was a flop, and years of delays, cancellations and overcrowding were simply unacceptable. However, the SNP and Greens now have a choice. We have a new transport minister in Jenny Gilruth, and with a new minister comes the chance to adopt a new approach—a clean break with the past year, in which Scottish Government actions were running counter to its rhetoric. We saw unprecedented industrial unrest, a 3.8 per cent fare hike and proposals to shut ticket office desks, and there was no commitment from the Scottish Government to restore services to pre-pandemic levels this year.