November 14, 2018 Media

Time to hit the brakes on rail privatisation

14th November 2018 

Today Labour will force a vote on whether to exercise the break clause in the ScotRail franchise.

Under the terms of the Scottish government’s agreement with the train operator Abellio, the SNP can exercise an opportunity in 2020 to end the franchise by its first expiry date in 2022.

We think the clause should be exercised and the railways brought into public hands, because the current deal is not working for Scotland. Performance is at a record low for the franchise, with cancellations at a record high.

ScotRail hasn’t hit punctuality targets since 2015, and is not expected to hit them again until 2022 at the earliest and has racked up almost £10,500,000 worth of fines for service quality since the beginning of the current franchise.

Bringing the railways back into public hands would mean running trains for passengers, not profits. Agree? Sign our petition here.