Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid) 09 February 2022
Okay. I will try to address some of Neil Bibby’s points. He talked about cuts to services, but I think that it is pragmatic to reflect on where we are with passenger rail use—how many folk are actually using the trains—at the moment. As I said in my answer to Graham Simpson, I take the train regularly; people are not using the trains as they were two years ago. We need to take cognisance of where we are with local use of our trains.
Do I want us to restore passenger services to what they were? We would have to have a sea change in how many folk are using the train in order for us to go back to those levels. I guess that the proposition, in that case, is that we run empty trains. I am not sure whether that is Labour’s position. I am keen to speak to the unions about the matter.
Mr Bibby will know that there was an announcement from ScotRail last week about restoration, to December levels, of a number of services. He will appreciate that there were a number of challenges, due to omicron and driver absences, that led to the introduction of a temporary timetable from the end of last year. That will end on 14 February, next week.
I accept that there are challenges. That links neatly to my response to Mr Simpson on customer behaviour: folk are scared to return to public transport because of the pandemic. Government can help with that with some of the messaging, but, if people are not using the trains, there is a question to be asked about the sustainability of running empty trains.
Mr Bibby also asked about cuts to jobs. I put on the record that there is absolutely no proposal from the Scottish Government to cut jobs. We talked about that in response to the ticket office consultation last week. I want to make it very clear that that is not part of the proposal.
On safety and accessibility, Mr Bibby asked about an equalities impact assessment. The ticket office consultation was carried out by Transport Focus, which is an independent watchdog. It carried out a diversity impact assessment, which is a live document pending the final report. Transport Focus looked at reducing the number of ticket office closures from 13 to three, and it looked at passenger assist, which is the system that allows folk who are travelling to pre-book help in getting on trains.
Mr Bibby also asked about fair work practices. Again, I covered that to an extent in my response to Mr Simpson. I am keen to work with the unions on the matter, and we absolutely expect fair work principles and fair work first to be instilled in the organisation. I want to speak to the rail unions to get a steer from them about where they are on the issue. I did not want to prejudge the outcome of those conversations in my statement.