ScotRail under fire as 'eye-watering' £2.5million compensation bill revealed

A Freedom of Information request from the Scottish Conservatives found that the amount of money paid out to passengers suffering delays has increased every year since Nicola Sturgeon brought Scotland’s railways under the control of the SNP.

Shadow transport secretary Sue Webber MSP has described the figures as “eye-watering” and described them as a “damning reflection” of the SNP’s mismanagement of ScotRail.

Ms Webber claimed passengers have paid a “heavy price” for train services that are frequently cancelled or delayed since nationalisation, with taxpayers left to pick up the bill.

The Lothian MSP added that a lack of reliable rail services meant Scots were not being encouraged to ditch their cars and use the train instead, as the former First Minister Ms Sturgeon had hoped.

Ms Webber said: “The eye-watering level of compensation payments are a damning reflection of the SNP’s mismanagement of ScotRail.

“Nicola Sturgeon and her SNP colleagues promised a bright new dawn for Scotland’s railways when nationalising them three years ago, but the reality for passengers has been entirely different.

“They have had to endure endless cancellations and delays to services, yet fares have soared at the same time.

“Taxpayers are ultimately the ones who have picked up this bill for millions of pounds in compensation because of the SNP’s incompetence, and the tab is only heading in the wrong direction.

“SNP ministers love to try and encourage Scots to ditch their cars and onto trains but their failures will be doing nothing to achieve that.

“The nationalisation of ScotRail is another example of the SNP’s big state approach that fails to deliver value for taxpayers and is miserably failing to ensure passengers have trains they can rely on.”

ScotRail has fewer delay compensation claims per passenger compared to Great Britain as a whole, and cancellations were believed to be higher pre-nationalisation

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “ScotRail has fewer delay compensation claims per passenger compared to Great Britain as a whole with cancellations lower now than pre-nationlisation, with approximately 17 claims per 100,000 passengers in the 12 months to September 2024. This compares to approximately 50 claims per 100,000 passengers on average for Great Britain. Many claims are for track engineering works caused by Network Rail which is the responsibility of the UK Government.

“Train performance and passenger satisfaction in Scotland is also consistently higher than the GB average – we will keep making improvements, so more people choose to travel by rail.

“While our ability to invest and improve services is impacted by ongoing UK Government spending decisions, we have invested over £12 billion in rail infrastructure in Scotland since 2007 with a further £1.5 billion investment planned for this financial year. Fare increases are lower than elsewhere in the UK, whilst also providing a 20% discount on season tickets and permanent extra benefits on flexipasses.

“The Scottish Government believes fundamentally that a fully devolved and integrated railway, publicly controlled and operated in the service of the people of Scotland and truly accountable to them, will deliver better and more efficient services for our people and our communities. We will keep pressing for full devolution of all the powers over rail infrastructure and to have full powers to nationalise Scotland’s Railway."