Scotland’s transport minister has rejected calls for his resignation amid growing concern about the state of the country’s railways.
A single broken down train caused travel chaos across Scotland earlier this week and fuelled fears about ScotRail’s ability to run the network.
The issue outside Edinburgh Waverley left commuters stranded for hours – with travellers from as far afield as Inverness and Aberdeen affected.
Transport Minister Humza Yousaf has faced calls to step down over the latest shambles – but he remained defiant yesterday, saying he will “most certainly not” resign.
But north-east Labour MSP Lewis Macdonald said Mr Yousaf urgently needed to take “decisive action”, suggesting he had “lost the confidence of train drivers and is losing the confidence of passengers”.
Train drivers’ union Aslef has called for the transport minister – who yesterday spoke to commuters at Glasgow Queen Street station – to resign.
The Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association also said yesterday that it “may be time” for the minister to “consider his position”.
Mr Macdonald said: “This is only the latest in a whole series of difficulties for people who travel regularly by train in Aberdeen.
“They have seen cancellation after cancellation and delay after delay.
“Clearly Mr Yousaf has lost the confidence of train drivers and is losing the confidence of passengers.
“He needs to make a decisive response to the issues facing train passengers in Scotland.”
Meanwhile, the Scottish Conservatives claimed ScotRail delays were costing the Scottish economy £233,000 a day – a figure leader Ruth Davidson branded “enormous”.
But speaking as he monitored the morning commute on Friday, Mr Yousaf said: “My job is to make sure that the railways are running, to make sure that buses are as efficient as possible, to make sure our trunk road network is moving.
“I’m committed to doing that job, as you’d imagine I am. I’ll be monitoring things absolutely closely.”
Mr Yousaf also threatened to terminate the ScotRail contract if the service does not improve, saying “everything is under review”.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon apologised for Thursday’s disruption after Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale raised the issue at Holyrood.
A ScotRail spokesman said: “We hosted Transport Minister Humza Yousaf on Friday morning when he visited to see our operations through the peak at Glasgow Central and Glasgow Queen Street stations.
“Everything went well as all our staff are passionate about and committed to driving performance to improve.
“We’re in the midst of a period of immense change as Scotland’s railway undergoes the biggest improvement since Victorian times.”
