ScotRail disruption payments top £3 million since nationalisation

The Scottish Liberal Democrats said the “eye-watering” bill pointed to a “serious level of disruption”. Passengers whose trains are delayed by more than half an hour can make delay repay claims.

Figures uncovered by the Liberal Democrats show £3,089,106.54 was paid to passengers for late or cancelled trains between April 2022, when the service returned to public ownership, and the end of October 2025.

There were 262,747 claims for delay repay in that time, with 178,446 of those being approved and paid out. This means the average pay-out was £17.32.

Scottish Liberal Democrat transport spokesman Jamie Greene said: “This is an eye-watering, multi-million-pound bill for delayed trains.

“The SNP have been directly responsible for the trains for three and a half years, but these figures point to a serious level of disruption that will be frustrating for commuters, holidaymakers and taxpayers.

“Since this figure only covers those who have applied for a refund, there may be many more people who have been similarly inconvenienced but who simply haven’t claimed.

“With people across the country struggling to make ends meet, these payments need to be brought under control. That’s also how we create a more efficient service that will help encourage people out of private cars.

“Passengers and commuters deserve better.”

Mark Ilderton, ScotRail service delivery director, said: “ScotRail operates more than 2,100 services across the country every day, with around nine out of ten of those services meeting the punctuality target, getting customers to where they need to be.

“Disruption can be for a number of reasons, many of them outside the control of ScotRail, and we know how frustrating it is when delays or cancellations occur.

“When it does happen, it is only right that compensation is paid to customers who experience disruption to their journey. Through our delay repay guarantee, anyone delayed by 30 minutes or more is entitled to claim money back through the ScotRail website or mobile app. 

 “We are absolutely committed to delivering the best possible service for customers throughout the country, and everyone at ScotRail is working hard to deliver the safe and reliable railway that our customers expect and deserve, and to encourage more people to travel by train instead of using the car.”

A spokesperson for SNP Transport Secretary Fiona Hyslop said: “Both Labour and Liberal Democrats keep repeating this attack and recycling press releases on it without understanding the context of the fact that trains for safety and other reasons may need on occasion to be cancelled and ScotRail works hard in these circumstances to get people home.

“Despite severe weather events and a significant amount of disruption caused by external factors beyond ScotRail’s control, cancellations remain lower than the period immediately before public ownership.

“ScotRail performs consistently better than most other GB operators. In the year to September 2025, ScotRail cancelled just 2.1 per cent of its trains - around half as many cancellations as the GB average of 3.9 per cent.

“ScotRail’s overall performance has been around 90 per cent for the three consecutive years of ScotRail in public ownership. This is consistently higher than many GB operators, including the regional operations which are the most comparable.”