Get out of the limo and sort ScotRail

COMMUTERS face misery tomorrow as a third of trains are cancelled.

Just seven weeks after the SNP Government took ScotRail into public ownership, the service is in crisis. And there’s no sign that First Minister Nicola Sturgeon or her hapless Transport Minister Jenny Gilruth have any idea how to put right what has gone so badly wrong on their watch.

Nationalisation of ScotRail was supposed to improve a service that, for years, has let down commuters. Instead, things have gone from bad to worse.

Ms Gilruth’s pitifully weak response is to urge ScotRail and the train drivers’ union Aslef to maintain a dialogue.

She speaks as if she has no locus in the ongoing dispute between drivers and the train operator – as if she would prefer voters not to notice the Scottish Government’s responsibility for the mess. In fact, Ms Gilruth should be expending every last gasp of energy in trying to find a solution. Now that the public owns ScotRail, it is for her to ensure the service is fit for purpose. Otherwise, what was the point of taking back ownership of the operator?

The SNP’s plan to nationalise ScotRail was hugely popular with those ‘radicals’ on the Left of the party. But the idea that public ownership would solve problems with the service has been exploded within weeks.

Scotland’s businesses need a train service that works for them and their employees. Instead, ScotRail – under the stewardship of the SNP – has become a national embarrassment.

Soon, all being well, Scotland will start to welcome back tourists in significant numbers. They, along with those who live here, may wonder what level of incompetence it takes to create a situation where train services between major cities stop running before 8pm.

Ms Gilruth should get out of her Ministerial limousine and start fixing this crisis.