CALLS for Scotland's railways to be brought under "full public ownership" as early as 2019 to stop profits subsidising rail travel in Holland have fallen on deaf ears, a union says.
Transport minister Humza Yousaf is known to be preparing a public sector bid to take over Scotland’s railways, when the contract held by Dutch state-owned railway firm Abellio ends which will be 2022 at the earliest or till 2025 by mutual consent.
But with the support of a petition signed by nearly 20,000 people, Manuel Cortes, the general secretary of the transport staff union TSSA called on the minister to take "the bold political decision" for full nationalisation of ScotRail without recourse to any bidding "preferably by using a break clause in 2019".
He believed a publicly owned company could lose in a bidding war with private companies in 2022 and that the minister should take action to institute full public ownership immediately.
In a response seen by the Herald shows that Mr Yousaf appears to be set on a public body taking over the train franchise indicating that any change to full public ownership would need UK Parliament approval.
Public bodies such as Calmac Ferries, the Transport for Edinburgh group, which includes Lothian Buses, and Strathclyde Partnership for Transport, which runs the Glasgow subway system, were all said to be in the running to take the franchise over.
Among the Scottish government's other options is the creation of a government-owned company or a public-private sector partnership to take over the ScotRail franchise.
Mr Yousaf, in his response, has said that consideration is being give to the "suitability of a range of existing public bodies" to bid for the rail franchise and is also examining the steps required to create "a new public sector body, if it is necessary to do so."
And he pointed out: "The UK approach currently is a privatised model, primarily set out in the Railways Act 1993, whereby passenger rail services are subject to franchising.
"The continuation, alteration or abolition of that model is an aspect of provision and regulation of railway services and is currently a matter that is reserved to the UK Parliament."
He also moved to defend ScotRail's record saying its performance declaring it had become "the best performing large train operator in the UK" in August.
He said ScotRail "has continued to improve" and that the moving annual average used to measure performance had risen by 1.6 per cent.
"To put this into context, ScotRail's performance is now 3.11 per cent ahead of England and Wales."
He added: "On overall passenger satisfaction, punctuality and reliability the introduction of additional surveys specified in the franchise agreement has also helped ScotRail to improve by identifying areas where further work is required and where customers are happy."
He said the most recent passengers survey shows that overall satisfaction with ScotRail for spring 2017 was 90 per cent.
"This is seven per cent above the GB average satisfaction rate of 83 per cent and represents an increase of three per cent form the spring, 2016 results."
A TSSA source said it looked like Mr Yousaf remained on the "slow lane to another public body" and would not commit to any moves to full nationalisation.
The response was written three days before it emerged that Abellio had bailed out ScotRail with a multi-million pound loan after it suffered its first loss in more than a decade.
Abellio ScotRail Limited suffered a £3.5m after-tax loss for 2016, in its first full year in charge of most of Scotland's train services.
TSSA general secretary Manuel Cortes rejected Mr Yousaf's appraisal saying: "ScotRail are failing by every metric. Passengers are being led badly let down by the level of service Abellio provides even if they are paying through the nose for their displeasure.
"We have now seen a money making enterprise post a loss. Humza has so far failed to tell us why ScotRail is now apparently a basket case. The Scottish people are deliberately being kept in the dark. They deserve far better.
"At his SNP conference speech on Tuesday, Humza must grab the bull by the horns. He must commit to using the break clause in the franchise to bring ScotRail into public ownership. Anything else will simply be fiddling while Rome burns."
Data shows that in the 12 months since Abellio took the franchise at least one in ten trains in Scotland ran more than five minutes late.
Mr Yousaf was forced to apologise to passengers following widespread disruption on ScotRail services last winter.
The TSSA campaign is supported by a video (above) which features some prime Scottish landmarks including the famous Glenfinnan viaduct from the Harry Potter films, and features a voiceover in the style of a Scottish National Party promotional film.
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