My Column

Scotrail Delayed but on the right track

  • Date: Monday 14th May 2018
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Businesses will always have good weeks and bad weeks – that’s just how it goes.

But for ScotRail, last week was a particularly testing one.

It came under fire on all fronts – over performance, standards, delays, and received a real grilling on whether it was meeting its promises.

ScotRail’s head Alex Hynes found himself answering to MSPs following fines of a whopping £1.6million over missed targets, and it’s exactly this kind of negative publicity that gets commuters angry, especially when fares continue to raise.

The missed targets actually related not to the punctuality of trains, but to other areas like station facilities and cleanliness.

But that’s not to say ScotRail’s reliability and punctuality is wonderful. Far from it, and last week alone was the perfect example.

It was a frustrating few days for commuters after a series of electrical and signalling faults hit services.

I spoke with a business associate and she recounted a horror train trip – what should have been a straightforward Falkirk-Edinburgh return journey.

It didn’t get off to a good start when her first train was late, but only by seven minutes – that’s not too bad, right?  That’s what she thought, until everyone on the train was forced to disembark at Linlithgow and wait for the next one.

The journey home wasn’t much better. The train she tried to catch got cancelled due to a fault.

She got on the next train, then off again, as she was told to disembark for the second time that day. Apparently a trespass incident had caused a number of cancellations.

She then waited for the next one, and with just minutes to spare, there was a platform change announcement. She finally caught a train home by the skin of her teeth after legging it to the new platform.

Needless to say, she wasn’t singing the company’s praises.

In the grand scheme of things for ScotRail though, such gripes are relatively minor compared to the other problems it has had to contend with.

Namely the controversial announcement that the hotly-anticipated high-speed service between Glasgow Queen Street and Edinburgh Waverley continues to be hit by delays.

We’ll now have to wait until next year before the new Hitachi trains chop down journey times to just 42 minutes.

Equally unpopular has been the news that a transformation of the Aberdeen-Edinburgh service has also been delayed.

The Intercity 125 fleet is undergoing a revamp with the promise of new seating, more tables and a better food and drink offering.  But instead of arriving in May as promised, it’s more likely to be July - hopefully.

To top off all the doom and gloom, a recent survey dealt a further blow by revealing Glasgow Queen Street Station, managed by Abellio ScotRail, was the UK’s least popular station.

You might think that I would want to add my voice to the chorus of disapproval. But despite all this, I actually want to encourage people to look at the bigger picture and retain some optimism.

Okay, targets have been missed but nobody wants to hit them more than ScotRail because failure hits them in the pocket, very significantly, when this happens.

Hynes accepted they could do better and I believe him when he says the company is working to improve.

Yes, the high speed trains are, ironically enough, arriving slower than we thought. But they are coming – very soon – and will make a real difference to commuters.

And when the Intercity 125 refurbishment project arrives after the summer, I’m sure commuters will welcome the work that’s been put in.

As for Queen Street Station, it’s no surprise that it’s not loved. That’s why there’s a major renovation project underway and I’ve no doubt opinions will change when this major undertaking is complete by 2020.

So let’s be optimistic and think of all the great things that are to come, even if they aren’t here quite as quickly as we’d like.

 

SIDE

It’s always great to see big names being lured to Scotland, whatever the industry.

When companies move here, they enjoy huge advantages – from office rent that’s a fraction of the price of the South of England amid a great choice of well-connected city locations, to typically shorter commutes, and higher quality of life for staff.

Scotland is booming across several sectors, such as tech, finance, and food and drink. However, it’s not often that football is mentioned in the same breath.

Our clubs rarely attract top talents, but that changed significantly with Rangers’ managerial appointment of Liverpool legend and former England captain Steven Gerrard.

While he’s untested in senior coaching roles, there’s no doubting that the capture of this household name could pay off handsomely for the Glasgow giants – and for the game too.

In the short-term, it will mean a significant boost to Rangers’ flagging season ticket sales, but in the longer-term it could also prove a major bargaining chip for Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) chiefs as they look to renegotiate TV rights.

Indeed, the current deal expires at the end of next season, and the SPFL is already in negotiations to up its £18.95million agreement with Sky Sports and BT Sport, with hopes high that it can double that fee.

Suddenly, after the exciting Premiership play-offs went right down to the wire this season, the prospect of Scottish football being firmly on the rise and watched by bigger, global TV audiences is a very real one.

At its heart will be as strong a top six as we’ve seen for many a year and the further enticement of Steven Gerrard pitting his managerial wits against former Liverpool mentor Brendan Rodgers in a mouth-watering Old Firm tussle.

Let’s hope the SPFL fully harnesses the fresh bankability of our game.

 

LAUGH

It’s weird to think that Donald Trump has placed one of our favourite national drinks on his international hate list.

Not content with routinely declaring his antipathy towards entire nations, and the odd adult film star, that ire has now been directed towards Irn-Bru of all things.

Apparently, the ginger stuff has been banned from the five-star Trump Turnberry Hotel due to fears over it staining the £250,000 carpets.

It’s surprising really given Donald’s permanently orange visage which had led me to believe he must be guzzling vast quantities of it on a daily basis.

Perhaps more surprising still is the very idea that anyone at the hotel would even be seen with a bottle of Bru. The slogan ‘Bollinger gets you through’ just doesn’t have the same ring to it.

 

WEEP

It’s sad to admit that Scotland too often leads the world in shocking health statistics – and we’ve just managed to top another highly dubious league table.

We’re now the number one country for snorting the most amount of cocaine in one sitting.

Perhaps worse still, Global Drug Survey found that 30 per cent of Scots claimed they could have it delivered faster than pizza.

Apparently, Domino’s and Pizza Hut simply can’t match our cocaine dealers when it comes to speedy drop-offs.

As if our alcohol and obesity problem wasn’t enough – now Scots are shovelling serious amounts of powder up their noses in record time.

 

Such speed of delivery matched by stupidly fast inhalation can only mean one thing. A huge timebomb for the struggling NHS and more premature deaths than ever.  

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