SCOTRAIL chiefs slapped themselves on the back today after grabbing two rail industry “Oscars” – despite months of woe for passengers.
The nationalised service won transport gongs for the quality of a list of its stations.
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ScotRail said the awards were “the industry’s Oscars” and underlined how Scotland’s railways are “on track”.
But the National Rail Awards come amid anger over cancellations, delays and fare rises on the Scottish Government-owned operator.
ScotRail said Glasgow Queen Street station had scooped the “Station of the Year – Major” award at a ceremony in London last night.
And Wemyss Bay came out top in the “Station of the Year – Small” category.
Motherwell station was also highly commended in the “Station of the Year – Large”.
Phil Campbell, ScotRail customer operations director, said: “This has been a fantastic night for ScotRail at the National Rail Awards.
“To win one railway Oscar would have been impressive, but to come away with two is an incredible achievement that says so much about the commitment of the colleagues who work very hard to keep Scotland’s railway on track.”
We told last month how a temporary timetable in recent months meant there were more than 530 fewer services each day compared to 2019, including staggering 5,774 trains cancelled between April and July.
And it emerged ten rush-hour trains a day were cancelled in Scotland in 2023, with 3,472 morning services axed last year.
In July, we told how TRNSMT fans were caught in travel chaos last night after ScotRail cut services before the festival had ended.
There has also been anger over the reinstatement of peak fares after September 27.
This means ticket prices will rocket – including a peak-time return almost doubling from £16.20 to £31.40 on the Glasgow-Edinburgh route.
Among a list of example rises, commuters travelling from Dumfries to Carlisle in order to arrive by 9am face return ticket prices on ScotRail tripling from £7.60 to £23.60 – a hike of 211 per recent.
Scottish Lib Dem transport spokesperson Daniel O’Malley said: “While station staff deserve credit for their work, the public will be horrified that ScotRail bosses are going for booze and backslapping when so many services are still not running as planned.”
