NEW calls have been made for Abellio to be stripped of the ScotRail franchise as disruption on Scotland's railways after the introduction of a winter timetable extended to 12th day.

Nicola Sturgeon has said the number of cancellations and delays to ScotRail services in recent weeks as "unacceptable".

READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon wants power to nationalise Scotland's railways 

The first minister said the public was owed an apology for a series of problems on Scotland's rail network.

The Scottish Government is now pushing to have all rail matters devolved to ministers north of the border.

The mans a full devolution of the train operating side carried out by ScotRail and the infrastructure side overseen by Network Rail.

The transport staff union has called on the SNP government to stop bailing out ScotRail and issue a Remedial Plan Notice after it said ScotRail passengers endured an estimated average of 80 trains cancelled per day in the first week-and-a-half of ScotRail’s new winter timetable.

According to the franchise agreement, Transport Scotland have the power to issue a Remedial Plan Notice if they think ScotRail have contravened, or are likely to contravene, any term in the Franchise Agreement.

If any Remedial Agreement is unsuccessful, the issue could be seen as “unremedied” leading to an Event of Default, which if then unremedied could result in a termination of the contract.

The Herald:

Dozens more trains were cancelled on Friday as travellers continued to bombard the train operator with complaints.

Most of the disruption that has hit Scots railways has been due to staff shortages, and ScotRail say that is partly because they have been undergoing training too late to be ready for the new winter timetable to be launched.

ScotRail, run by Dutch transport firm Abellio, said that was partly caused by the late arrival of the new Hitachi Class 385 and high-speed InterCity trains.

The train operator says the lag in staff training was made worse as a result of RMT industrial action over a pay dispute that lasted several weeks, and was resolved on a fortnight ago.

TSSA leader Manuel Cortes said: "Matheson should be more like Scrooge going forward and demand that either Abellio meet their targets or hand back the ScotRail keys. Time for him to get tough.”

Scottish Greens also called on the Scottish Government to end the current ScotRail franchise as chaos continues across the rail network.

called on the Scottish Government to end the current ScotRail franchise as chaos continues across the rail network.

Mr Finnie, Green MSP for the Highlands and Islands,highlighted the Scottish Government’s ambition to take control of Network Rail, which is currently controlled by the UK Government. Greens support the devolution of Network Rail, and believe that both track and train operations should be run by a public sector operator.

Mr Finnie said: “ScotRail’s performance has gone from bad to worse in recent months, and the Scottish Government’s response has been wholly inadequate. Simply ordering review after review, while ScotRail’s performance continues to get worse is not good enough.

“Greens support the Scottish Government’s ambition to see Network Rail devolved. However, there seems little point in seeking control of one part of the rail operation, while franchising out another. The Transport Secretary must bring to an end Abellio’s disastrous reign and put in place a public sector operator to run Scotland’s railways exclusively in the public interest, at the earliest opportunity.”

The train operator run by Dutch transport company Abellio, had said its new electric and high-speed trains including the environmentally friendly Hitachi Class 385 stock would allow shorter journey times, more seats and more services on updated routes to build "the best railway Scotland has ever had".

Meanwhile Stirling MSP Bruce Crawford hit out at a response from ScotRail over the issue of the high number of cancellations.

"Commuters rightly expect a much higher standard of service than they are receiving at the moment, frankly the situation that my constituents continue to be faced with is not good enough.

“For too long, we have heard complaints about there being too few carriages on peak time services – and the situation is only made worse by a number of cancellations and inconvenient changes to the timetable.

“ScotRail, as a large organisation, should be prepared to deal with situations such as staffing shortages. It is frankly unacceptable that passengers have been put in the situation where a large number of services across the country have been cancelled, which has only made later services even more busy."

Stephen Kerr, the Stirling MP has told transport secretary Michael Matheson in a letter that there are "clearly management failures" at ScotRail and called for urgent improvements.

One customer, Sophie Mackay relayed a blow by blow account of just two days of the disruption she faced on Scotland's railways.

The Herald:

Speaking at First Minister Questions, the First Minister said: "We've seen a significant and unacceptable number of delays that are clearly the responsibility of ScotRail.

"I can report to parliament that cancellations of this type have fallen as the week has progressed from around 144 on Monday to an estimated 40 today.

"Progress is being made but it is not good enough - we expect, indeed we demand, better from the rail operator and the transport secretary continues to work closely with them to ensure that we continue to see improvements in the days to come."

"The level of cancellations, this week in particular, has been unacceptable and I absolutely recognise the frustration of the travelling public."

ScotRail have been approached for comment.

The Herald:

A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: “Unique in the UK, the Scottish Government secured powers to accept bids for future rail franchises in Scotland from public sector organisations through the Scotland Act 2016. This was after repeatedly being denied that right by successive Labour and Conservative governments.

“The Scottish Government must let rail franchises in accordance with the UK Railways Act 1993, which requires open competition as rail franchising and competition policy remain reserved to the UK Government. Network Rail is a UK public body and, although its activities in Scotland are specified and funded by the Scottish Government, it is ultimately accountable to the UK Government.

“For the recently announced UK rail review to be meaningful, it must consider devolving all rail matters to the Scottish Ministers.  Until this happens, we cannot consider the full range of options for running the railways in Scotland for the benefit of our passengers and communities."