Chamber and committees

Could the member tell us what improvements he wants to see under a nationalised ScotRail?

I will start by doing something that I should have done previously, which is to welcome Jenny Gilruth to her new role. I had thought that she had made a promising start by giving some very straight answers to questions in the chamber but, today, she has hunkered down somewhat. However, she says that she is in listening mode, so I will take her at her word.

I thank Labour for bringing this important debate to the chamber. We are at an important junction for the rail industry. It is a fork in the line where we can either do better or have more of the same. The problem is that we do not know where we are heading, because we have had no vision from the Scottish Government. Whether members would like a nationalised rail industry or not, we do not know what that is going to mean. We do know that there will be cuts in services and ticket offices and that Abellio has been doing the SNP’s dirty work by preparing the ground for all that.

On the subject of ticket offices, in my region alone, East Kilbride station will lose up to five hours a day; Airdrie, which is a busy station, will have five hours cut from Monday to Saturday; and the office in Cumbernauld, another big town, will be open for only 90 minutes a day, Monday to Thursday, and not at all on Friday.

Things have changed a lot since 1992, but, as was outlined earlier, the need for personal service has not changed; we require that in some stations.

We need to get back to some sort of normality and end the emergency timetable. We say no to the 300 service cuts that are coming down the line, although it would seem that there will now be a mere 250 cuts. We have to get rid of the temporary timetables.

Fares have been going up, but services are being cut. If we want to get people back on the train, we need fares to go down, not up. Stephen Kerr will talk about that.

Mr Kerr is actually on the same page as Mick Lynch of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers. Mr Lynch says the following, and Mr Kerr would no doubt agree:

“We already have a cost-of-living crisis and now there is a climate cost to latest Scottish rail fare hikes which will deter people from using rail, especially when we know the price of using rail has risen ... four times more quickly than the cost of petrol in the last decade.”

He is right.

In the Scottish Government’s most recent budget, it has cut almost £100 million from vital rail infrastructure. I mentioned East Kilbride earlier; that line is bearing the brunt of those costs.

We need to increase the number of staff in stations and ticket offices. We need to expand the ticket office network. Those two things were contained in the vision, the only vision that we have had so far—and that was prepared by the rail unions. I am pleased to hear that the minister will be talking to the unions next week, because we need to repair industrial relations on our railways. They have been shattered, and they need to be fixed in order for us to move on.

I listened to the transport minister’s earlier answer. When I look at the map of the Clyde metro, it is all rather vague. There is a kind of random squiggle coming out to East Kilbride, with a loop around the town, and I am not sure where that is or what the exact route is. When will we get some level of detail on all this?

I am not sure what the applause is about. I assure the minister—

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reported problems with applying for free under-22 bus travel passes. (S6T-00468)

I listened to the minister’s answer with interest. It should not really take the Improvement Service stepping in at the 11^th hour to make improvements that should have been there in the first place, although improvements are welcome.

Parents and youngsters have described the process as bureaucratic—one parent even called it “Stasi-like”. I heard today that people who have been lucky enough to get a card are reporting that it does not even work. The minister might want to look into that.

We have a backlog of about 40,000 applications from young people who are waiting for their cards. What will the minister do for them?

The Deputy First Minister is speaking from a sedentary position. I am not sure what he is chuntering about.

I want the scheme to be a success. I will ask about another issue that has cropped up with it. Strathclyde Partnership for Transport and Edinburgh Trams Ltd say that the introduction of the scheme will cost them money because youngsters will use buses rather than their services. Has the minister reflected on what they have to say and whether the scheme could be extended to Glasgow underground and the Edinburgh trams?

That is encouraging. There are also groups in the list that speak up for disabled people even if they are not specifically disability groups.

If you look at the membership list, which you should have in front of you, you will see that the CPG is not just about cycling. As you know, Ms Webber, I am a cyclist but I am not a man in Lycra. I cannot achieve any great speed and cause alarm while I am cycling about.

The name of the CPG is sustainable transport, not cycling. We cover ferries, trains, buses, walking and cycling. It is not just about cycling.