ScotRail spent £1.2million on emergency rail replacement services since coming into public ownership

dailyrecord.co.uk:

ScotRail spent more than £1 million on emergency rail replacement buses in the 15 months after it came into public ownership.A Freedom of Information Request by Scottish Labour has revealed that £1.2 million was spent on the services between April 2022 and June 2023.In total, more than £4 million was spent on planned and unplanned rail replacement services in this time.Some £270,000 was spent on taxis to ferry passengers stranded by cancellations.

Nearly £3 million was spent on the planned hire of buses due to engineering works.ScotRail came into public ownership on April 1, 2022.

Labour has accused the Scottish Government of wasting the opportunity to transform Scotland's railways since then, claiming it has delivered “the same old SNP failure”.Scottish Labour transport spokesperson Alex Rowley said: “Eye-watering sums of money are being robbed from services as a result of the SNP’s incompetence.“Public ownership should have been a chance to deliver a railway service that puts passengers’ needs first, but instead we are getting the same old SNP failure.“Services have been plagued by cancellations and chaos, and passengers are paying eye-watering fares for the privilege.“There must be urgent action to deliver the reliable, affordable rail service Scotland deserves.”Several ScotRail services have been cancelled over the last few days because of Storm Babet.ScotRail Customer Operations Director Phil Campbell said: “We are absolutely committed to providing the best possible service for our customers.“There has been no better example of this than the efforts the whole of Scotland’s Railway has made, and continues to make, this weekend to get the rail network back on track following the worst rain the country has experienced