Early end to Abellio ScotRail contract welcomed by north politicians
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THE decision by the Scottish Government to end Abellio's ScotRail contract three years early has been welcomed by north MP Jamie Stone.
He was speaking after Scotland's transport secretary Michael Matheson said the company's contract is to be terminated in March 2022.
The contract was awarded to the Dutch company in 2015 and had been due to end in 2025. Mr Matheson said Abellio was not delivering sufficient benefits to passengers or the economy and exercised the so-called "break clause" to terminate the contract.
Mr Stone, the newly re-elected Liberal Democrat MP for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross, said: "I am pleased the Scottish Government has finally decided to end Abellio’s contract, as we have been calling for this move for some time. The public deserve more than cancelled services, delays, overcrowding, absence of refreshment trolleys and lack of working toilets.
"The Scottish Government must now take action to make sure there is stronger protection for customers in the future franchise agreement. They also need to look carefully at including more break points in the new contract to ensure there is a much better chance to correct poor performance earlier on.
"The transport secretary cannot repeat the same mistakes."
The decision also found favour with Highlands and Islands Green MSP John Finnie.
He said: "Scottish Greens welcome the decision to bring an end to the Abellio ScotRail franchise. Delays, cancellations and overcrowding have occurred far too often on Scotland’s railways in recent years, particularly in the Highlands.
"The Scottish Government must now ensure that a robust public sector bid is in place so that our railways can be run in the public interest in future, rather than for private profit as now.
"In light of noises coming from down south that the UK Government intends to attack hard-won rail workers' rights, it’s also vital that Scottish ministers engage with trade unions at every step of the process in developing the next franchise, to ensure workers’ rights are at the heart of future ScotRail services and that there is no attempt to roll out the driver-only operation."
The Abellio contract was said to be worth more than £7 billion over 10 years.
Mr Matheson is looking at other options, including the franchise being run by the public sector.
