Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid) 03 February 2022
Things have changed a lot since 1992, but, as was outlined earlier, the need for personal service has not changed; we require that in some stations.
We need to get back to some sort of normality and end the emergency timetable. We say no to the 300 service cuts that are coming down the line, although it would seem that there will now be a mere 250 cuts. We have to get rid of the temporary timetables.
Fares have been going up, but services are being cut. If we want to get people back on the train, we need fares to go down, not up. Stephen Kerr will talk about that.
Mr Kerr is actually on the same page as Mick Lynch of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers. Mr Lynch says the following, and Mr Kerr would no doubt agree:
“We already have a cost-of-living crisis and now there is a climate cost to latest Scottish rail fare hikes which will deter people from using rail, especially when we know the price of using rail has risen ... four times more quickly than the cost of petrol in the last decade.”
He is right.
In the Scottish Government’s most recent budget, it has cut almost £100 million from vital rail infrastructure. I mentioned East Kilbride earlier; that line is bearing the brunt of those costs.
We need to increase the number of staff in stations and ticket offices. We need to expand the ticket office network. Those two things were contained in the vision, the only vision that we have had so far—and that was prepared by the rail unions. I am pleased to hear that the minister will be talking to the unions next week, because we need to repair industrial relations on our railways. They have been shattered, and they need to be fixed in order for us to move on.
16:14