I find the situation for commuters between stations in my constituency (Dunblane, Bridge of Allan and Stirling) and Glasgow and Edinburgh to be unacceptable and I would expect that improvements would be forthcoming as a matter of extreme urgency.
Many ScotRail customers have been in touch with me to express their anger at the standard of the service they have had to endure for many months. While I acknowledge that Scotrail have had difficulties it is the company’s responsibility to provide a reliable and sufficient service for their customers. My expectation is that there should be a general compensation scheme for their customers.
Ordinarily I would advise customers who have had a bad experience with a private company to change supplier and use a company that they can rely on, but in this situation there is no practical alternative available and using Scotrail is the only way they can get to their work. Given the level of public investment in the railway I would expect Scotrail to not only apologise to their customers and pay compensation, but also most importantly introduce measures to address the problems urgently.
I have written to both Scotrail's managing Director and ScotGov's Secretary of Transport calling for urgent improvements and compensation for commuters and passengers who have had their services cancelled, often with little notice.