Labour’s plans for rail reform – Transport Focus response
Commenting on the Labour party's announcement of their plans for rail reform Alex Robertson, Chief...
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Passengers feeling the strain during disruption
22 February 2017
The performance problems faced by Scotland’s rail passengers’ has resulted in a significant drop in overall passenger satisfaction of seven percentage points.
The latest National Rail Passenger Survey satisfaction figures show a disappointing departure from ScotRail’s previous high performance.
Punctuality drives passenger views of the railway. Sadly, passenger satisfaction with punctuality has fallen seven percentage points. This must be addressed by the performance improvement plan published last year. Passengers rightly expect that the ScotRail Alliance (ScotRail and Network Rail) should ensure that most trains arrive on time, with few cancellations and with carriages of the right length.
We all recognise that increased passenger numbers are putting considerable pressure on the rail network both in its day-to-day operation and during rebuilding. Improvements and investments to the railway to cope with the growth and attract new passengers to rail are welcome. They will see new trains introduced, a continued rolling programme of electrification, station rebuilding and many more enhancements across Scotland.
However, the process of delivering these improvements and delivering a day-to-day railway at the same time must be ensured or passengers will continue to voice their concerns.
National Transport Strategy
We are ensuring that the passenger voice is heard during the ongoing review process of Scotland’s transport as a member of the National Transport Strategy (NTS) Partnership Review Group.
The review will report on how much the current strategy has delivered. It will also set out a vision of what kind of transport users want in Scotland in 20 years’ time addressing challenges and realising opportunities along the way.
The aim is to ensure that the review delivers and demonstrates a Scotland-wide ethos of strong partnership working by giving stakeholders, communities and transport users a greater say in influencing the development of transport policy at local, regional and national level.
