Hansard

Almost a year ago, on 17 March 2021, the Cabinet Secretary for Transport, Michael Matheson, advised Parliament that, at the conclusion of the current franchise, ScotRail services would be provided within the public sector by the operator of last resort: an arm’s-length company owned and controlled by the Scottish Government. The current franchising system was clearly no longer fit for purpose.

At that time, there was considerable uncertainty arising from the on-going Covid pandemic and continuing delays to the publication of the UK Government’s white paper on rail reform. A detailed assessment of the options that were available for ScotRail was undertaken and it was decided that it would not be appropriate to award another franchise agreement to any party at this time.

Today, I can confirm that the transition of ScotRail into Scottish Government control will take place on 1 April 2022. Although that is good news, it is clear that much work still needs to be done, in a collaborative way, to ensure the long-term sustainability of rail operations in Scotland, to best meet the needs of the people whom we represent.

The pandemic has changed the way in which people travel. Its impact on travel patterns has been substantial. At one point, revenue in passenger services dropped to less than 10 per cent of pre-pandemic levels. That means that the rail industry must adapt to reflect customer need. That is particularly important as we strive to achieve our ambitious decarbonisation and net zero targets.

It is worth lifting our heads on that point. For countries in the European Union, the largest decrease in the number of rail passengers was in Ireland, where numbers dropped by 74 per cent during the pandemic compared with the fourth quarter of 2019—a fall of 9.5 million passengers. In Greece, the reduction was 68 per cent, or 3.8 million passengers, and in Italy the reduction was 61 per cent, or 144 million passengers. In Great Britain, passenger use remains far lower than it was before the pandemic, with 248 million journeys this quarter, which is just over half the 448 million journeys that were made at the end of 2019 and the start of 2020.

Although it is good that nearly half of our rail passengers have returned to ScotRail services, it is clear that travel patterns, purchasing habits and passenger demands are very different from those that existed pre-pandemic. People are now more likely to travel for leisure. The shift to hybrid working will change that to some degree, but it is likely that more people will continue to work from home for at least part of the week, now and in future. Weekends, rather than the weekday commuter periods, are now the busiest times for rail travel.

The travelling public are voting with their feet. We need to ensure that the railways reflect that direction of travel. We need to deliver rail services at the times when and in the ways in which people want to use them. Our publicly owned ScotRail will put passengers’ needs and interests at the heart of all that it does.

Bringing train operators into public control is not new. Indeed, the United Kingdom and Welsh Governments have found themselves in similar positions, with three train operating companies in England and one in Wales now under public sector control.

Change is also not new in relation to rail operations in Scotland. We have seen the benefits that change can bring in the freight sector, where new ways have been found to ensure the viability of operations as freight customer demands have changed. Environmentally sustainable movements of groceries for major retailers have replaced coal travelling to power stations. In Scotland, rail freight volumes are already returning to pre-pandemic levels.

Despite those examples of positive change, it is understandable that any change can cause uncertainty and concern. That is why, today, I want to kick-start a national conversation about what our new beginning for ScotRail should look like—an affordable, sustainable, customer-focused rail passenger service in Scotland in a post-pandemic world.

Just last week, I heard colleagues from Opposition benches raise concerns about passenger services post 1 April. They raised concerns about timetables, ticket offices, rail fares and terms and conditions for staff. I also heard many positive comments from members about the opportunities that the transition into Scottish Government ownership presents.

I told Parliament last week that I would listen. To that end, at the core of this statement to Parliament today is an invitation to all members who have a genuine interest in the future of ScotRail to get involved and to work with me to shape the change that needs to happen. I am happy to meet representatives of all parties, and my private office has already extended an invitation to Opposition spokespeople.

Change will happen on 1 April, so my invitation to all members today is this: let us have a conversation about that change and let us work together to influence how it happens. After all, we all want a railway that delivers for our constituents.

As I mentioned last week, our rail staff have a vital role to play in shaping and delivering a successful future railway for Scotland. As so many of our essential workers did, ScotRail staff—and, indeed, all our rail workers—went above and beyond throughout the pandemic. We will always be grateful to them for all that they did to keep our rail services running during these challenging past two years.

I make clear today that we want to take ScotRail’s staff with us on this journey into Scottish Government ownership. That is why this invitation is also extended to the rail unions. As members might recall from last week, I will meet the trade unions tomorrow afternoon. We know that the unions are passionate about the industry, as is evident from their report “A Vision for Scotland’s Railways”. Through open and frank discussion, we can work together to harness their aspirations for the future. I look forward to tomorrow’s conversations.

There was much discussion about the vision for Scotland’s railways last week in the chamber. Let me be absolutely clear: our vision for rail is of a thriving industry that meets the needs of passengers and is sustainable in the long term. To meet our climate change targets and our aim of reducing car kilometres by 20 per cent by 2030, we need Scotland’s railways. An efficient, effective, productive and profitable railway is critical to our mission zero ambition for transport. We want ScotRail to deliver the rail services that the people of Scotland, and the generations yet to come, need and deserve.

There is no doubt that the immediate future for rail services is challenging. That means that we need to do all that we can in the short and medium terms to encourage more people to travel by rail, while also delivering rail services more efficiently. We provided around £1 billion of support throughout the pandemic, including more than £550 million of additional funding for the ScotRail and Caledonian Sleeper franchises via the current emergency measures agreements, to ensure the sustainability of Scotland’s rail services, give security of employment for rail staff and cover necessary operating costs.

However, we have to be pragmatic. That level of funding is not sustainable in the longer term, nor is it desirable. Success for Scotland’s rail services in the future includes ensuring that they deliver public value and generate increased revenue. This Government is investing significantly in decarbonising our rail services. In the past 10 years, we have invested around £1 billion in 441km of track electrification and associated infrastructure improvements, directly benefiting more than 35 million passenger journeys across Scotland each year.

Prior to the onset of the pandemic, more than 75 per cent of passenger journeys on ScotRail were being made on net zero-emission trains. We want to exceed that through our investment in decarbonisation. A successful demand-focused railway has a huge part to play in delivering a truly integrated decarbonised transport system for Scotland. However, to be truly integrated, rail needs to play a much bigger part in the overall transport system than it does at present. That is the future that we want the new ScotRail to help to deliver.

We also want it to be an exemplar public sector company. Its culture will be founded on fair work, and it will be expected to embed the fair work framework and fair work first into its policies, processes and practices. The new company will, like most other public sector arm’s-length operations, benefit from the public sector pay policy.

There has been much discussion around no compulsory redundancies as part of the engagement with trade unions in advance of staff transferring on 1 April. As I said last week, I recognise that a new body such as ScotRail Trains Ltd will not have an existing agreement on no compulsory redundancies in place, but I expect there to be negotiations on that as part of the public sector pay policy discussions, which are crucial to the change that is needed.

The new beginning for ScotRail will be built on strong foundations. This Government invested at record levels to improve connectivity and increase the number of trains across Scotland’s network. Since 2009, we have reconnected 14 communities to the rail network through reversal of the Beeching cuts, and, in the next three years, Reston, East Linton, Dalcross, Cameron Bridge and Leven will follow.

As part of strategic transport projects review 2, further strategic projects are planned in the next 20 years, including electrification of the Glasgow Central to Barrhead and East Kilbride routes, which are the most advanced, and the Borders and Fife lines are being developed as a priority. Electrification will encourage more freight off the roads and on to rail.

All our investment in passenger services seeks to encourage more people to choose to travel by train, and to enjoy doing so. However, to do that, people need to feel safe to return to public transport. Let us be clear that some of those issues do not relate to the Covid pandemic. It is important that everyone—passengers and workers—feel safe in our stations and travelling on our railways. That is why I fully understand the concerns that have been raised around the ticket office consultation, for example.

However, safety is not just about what happens on station platforms. Passengers should be able to make end-to-end journeys without being fearful and without the threat of intimidation, verbal and physical abuse or violence. Antisocial behaviour on any part of our rail infrastructure, but particularly on trains and in stations, is unacceptable. For some years, the Scottish Government has worked with our policing and industry partners to reduce such behaviour and crime on Scotland’s railways. That has included addressing alcohol-related incidents not only with a greater officer presence in hot spots and at key times, but also with direct measures to reduce alcohol consumption on trains. We have supplemented the previous ban on alcohol consumption on trains at night with a blanket ban during the pandemic. That ban is being kept under review.

ScotRail and the British Transport Police meet regularly to discuss the impacts of antisocial behaviour and abuse against passengers and staff. Although British Transport Police officers cannot travel on all services, they target potentially problematic services as part of their regular measures to drive down crime on our railways.

I met ScotRail only yesterday afternoon and I heard more about the travel safe team, which was launched in October last year. The team members were recruited from across ScotRail and bring with them a wealth of experience working in front-line, customer-facing roles in our stations and on our trains. That is the sort of public-facing initiative that we should be encouraging, because we know that when staff are deployed in teams, even just their presence can act as a deterrent, helping to keep the public safe.

Much was said last week, as I mentioned, in relation to potential ticket office closures but particularly about women’s safety in train stations. I want to be very clear that I take the issue of women’s safety on public transport extremely seriously. However, that is not just about our station platforms or ticket offices—it is about the walk to the station; it is about the journey on the train home; it is about making sure that you do not catch the last train to Fife because it is full of drunk men who will squeeze in beside you, despite the fact that you are surrounded by empty seats and are sitting quietly with your headphones on, and who, when you get up the gumption to move seats, as the woman across the aisle from you has done, will shout at you for daring to escape. “I’m only having a laugh,” he says as he shunts his leg against yours and you hope that he does not follow with his friend when you move away.

Let me say to those on the Opposition benches, but particularly to the male Opposition members who last week wanted to tell me about women’s safety on our trains—I know all about it. I have been there. It is a systemic problem and it is not just about our ticket offices; it is about all the places on our public transport networks where women are scared to go because of men’s behaviour.

As we look to the vision for Scotland’s new railway, we have many choices to make, but I want our railways to be safe places for women to travel. We need to identify, as a Government, where it is that women feel unsafe on our public transport systems and then identify how we are going to fix it. To that end, I am announcing that we will be consulting with women and women’s organisations across the country to better understand their experiences and therefore how we can improve our public transport system to make it safer and more enjoyable for them to use.

There will be wider partners involved in that work. I will seek to engage with the British Transport Police, for example, which has recently launched a campaign against sexual harassment. That follows data that was commissioned by YouGov during the pandemic, which showed that over half of women in London had been subjected to unwanted sexual behaviour while travelling on public transport—I repeat: over half. Crucially, it will also include the rail unions and employees, because I know that it matters to staff, too.

Scotland’s new railway might look exactly the same in a few weeks’ time—the trains will still be branded with ScotRail’s logo—but we need a sea change in the vision to propel us forward. It will be sustainable, efficient and responsive to the needs of the public. It will be a system that looks after our rail workers and that invests in their skills and talents.

Today, I have set out the inclusive approach that, as transport minister, I intend to take to that end. I will work with parties across the chamber in this endeavour, because getting public ownership of our trains right is important to the people of this country. Encouraging the people of Scotland to choose to travel locally and further afield by train—for work, training, education, leisure and social activities—is vital to Scotland’s future. It will help to transform our economy, deliver on our net zero ambitions and create a fairer, greener Scotland for all.

That is our vision for rail—a vision that I hope that members across the chamber will want to play their part in shaping, through a national conversation.