An action plan including so-called ‘golden trains’ has been drawn up by ScotRail after a wave of negative publicity over delays and cancellations.
Thousands of people have signed petitions calling for operator Abellio to be axed, while the Labour party published a damning report into late trains and prices rises.
Two rush hour services from Helensburgh Central have been cut in recent years, and it was revealed here last week that the busiest remaining train from the town is more than five minutes late on 68% of journeys.
ScotRail today published a performance improvement plan which it has been forced to produce because nationally its performance has fallen below 90% of expected levels.
The document – approved by Transport Scotland – says that managers will be sent out of their offices and onto the network to help front line staff.
It includes the identification, monitoring and protecting of ‘golden trains’ – these are not named, but described as the services that, if delayed, have the biggest impact on the rest of the rest of the rail network.
ScotRail Alliance infrastructure director, David Dickson (pictured), said: “Over the course of the next year or so we will be completing huge projects to upgrade our infrastructure, electrifying large parts of the network and introducing new fleets of faster, longer greener and intercity trains.
“When we complete this work, there will be a hundred thousand more seats available each and every weekday than there was at the start of the current franchise.
“With this amount of change, there is inevitably some disruption. We are doing everything we can to minimise this – such as the work we did to keep people moving during the closure of the Queen Street Tunnel.
”However, there is no doubt that our performance in recent months, as a result of all of this work, has dipped slightly. The plan we are publishing today details how we bring it back to the level that our customers expect and that we want to deliver.”
The plan makes no specific mention of Helensburgh, and Mr Dickson warned that the coming of autumn could make things even worse.
“Autumn is one of the most difficult periods for all rail operators across Britain,” he said.
“Leaves on the line has become a cliché over the years, but the problems that are caused by wet weather and vegetation are all too real.
“Leaf debris on the tracks can cause train wheels to slip – increasing breaking distances (sic) and making conditions more difficult for our drivers.
“We are committing a huge amount of time, effort and people to tackling these problems. The special trains we are deploying play a hugely important role in clearing tracks and keeping trains moving.”
The improvement plan is available here: performanceimprovementplanoctober2016-copy
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