Why has ScotRail cancelled hundreds of trains? 2022

 Hundreds of trains have been cancelled in Scotland, after operator ScotRail issued a temporary timetable that cut daily services by a third.

It comes amid a pay dispute between ScotRail bosses and railway unions, where drivers have declined to work overtime or on rest days.

ScotRail does not have enough drivers to run normal services, so without drivers working overtime, trains have been cut across the country.

How have services changed?

About 700 train services a day were axed on Monday 23 May. ScotRail's original Summer 2022 timetable had about 2,150 weekday services. This has now been reduced to 1,456 in the temporary timetable.

Under ScotRail's previous operator Abellio, services peaked at more than 2,400 trains every weekday. This was an increase of 9% a decade earlier.

But when the Covid pandemic hit in March 2020, services were reduced as passenger numbers plummeted by 95%. Thousands of people swapped their daily commute for home working.

ScotRail reinstated 150 services in its summer timetable, but said peak-time commuter services would not return to pre-pandemic levels.


What's the background to the cuts?

ScotRail is back in public ownership for the first time in 25 years, after Abellio had its franchise ended early amid criticism of the quality of the service.

A Scottish government owned company took over the running of ScotRail last month. But this coincided with a driver pay dispute.

Train drivers' union Aslef is balloting members for strike action after rejecting a 2.2% pay offer. The RMT union, which covers other rail workers, then also announced it would hold a strike ballot over pay.

  • Rail union to ballot over 'derisory' pay offer
  • Anger over 'devastating' cuts to ScotRail services

ScotRail began cancelling hundreds of trains from Sunday 8 May after many drivers chose not to work overtime or on rest days.

About 300 services had been cancelled on Sundays before the new temporary timetable was announced.

The operator had relied on drivers working extra hours, due to delays in training new staff during the pandemic.

ScotRail said that without the Covid impact on training, it would have trained about an extra 130 drivers.


Who will be worst affected?

Passengers travelling on the earliest trains of the day and using evening services will be worst hit. Evening trains on routes across the country now terminate hours earlier.

Last trains on many services now depart before 20:00, whereas before this could be after 23:00 or near midnight.

Many daily workers are concerned they will struggle to get home using the rail network.

Hospitality and entertainment businesses have also warned the situation will affect their income, with passengers unable to get into towns and city centres.

The Night Time Industries Association Scotland described the cuts as devastating, and said it was a "cruel blow" while businesses were trying to recover after the pandemic.

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