The boss of the ScotRail Alliance has made a commitment to get services back on track in the Helensburgh area.
Managing director Alex Hynes meet MSP Jackie Baillie and community council representatives this week in Cardross, which has been hit particularly badly by ‘station skipping’.
Passengers using the Helensburgh to Edinburgh line rank among the worst hit in Scotland by the practice, when late-running trains speed past pre-planned stops to make up time.
New figures disclosed at the meeting by ScotRail backed up anecdotal evidence from local passengers and confirmed that levels of station-skipping on local services had been well above the national average over the past year.
The figures do show a reduction of more than 50% reduction in the level of skip-stopping on local services since December, however.
The Public Performance Measure which tracks ScotRail’s punctuality and reliability on Cardross services has dipped as low as 63.6% during the autumn/winter period compared to a target of 91.%.
In some months as many as one in 20 services due to call at Cardross were affected by station-skipping.
There has been some improvement in recent weeks and the public performance measure now stands at 84%, but the 8.05 train from Helenbsurgh has been cancelled for the last two days.
Ms Baillie said: Jackie said: “I am grateful to Alex Hynes for coming to Cardross and listening to the concerns of local passengers. This was a very productive meeting and ScotRail left with a much fuller understanding of the scale of the impact of station-skipping on residents in Dumbarton, Vale of Leven, Helensburgh and Lomond.
“After months of campaigning, I am pleased that ScotRail has finally committed to tougher action to improve our local services.
“Autumn is always the most disruptive time of year for train operators so I am pleased that Mr Hynes has agreed to visit Cardross and Dumbarton again in six months to discuss progress.”
Mr Hynes confirmed that ScotRail was taking immediate action to reduce the level of station-skipping in the short term by instructing the control centre to minimise the usage of the practice.
Following concerns raised by parents of children in Cardross who attend Hermitage Academy, ScotRail will also make the control centre aware of which services are used often by pupils to ensure that young people get to school safely and return home on time.
Over the medium to long-term the firm says it will investigate the root causes of the disruption locallyand make any necessary operational changes to avoid the need for station-skipping in future.
Mr Hynes added: “It was great to meet with Jackie Baillie and members of the Cardross Community Council, to hear their views on the ScotRail Alliance.
“Our performance hasn’t been good enough in recent months, but these figures show that things are improving. More of our trains are arriving on time, and we have reduced skip-stopping by more than 50%in recent months. We’re working hard to reduce this even further.
“Skip-stopping is something that we only do when absolutely necessary, to prevent further disruption across the network. I am very clear that it should always be a last resort.”
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