Transport Minister Best for Scotland’s Rail

When there are big issues – it takes someone ‘big’ to take them on. It takes someone solid, with endurance and ambition.

That’s Humza Yousaf. The last few weeks we’ve seen flashes of his stony endurance, determination and ambition for Scotland’s rail. He has stood in front of Parliament and acknowledged the issues ScotRail is facing. But he’s taking them on. He’s taking the issues firmly in hand and transforming them.

Let’s be honest – being a transport minister in the UK is one of the toughest positions in government. Why? One reason and perhaps above all is the weather. Transport stands firmly facing the elements. As a former transport minister, I know about that personally! You can’t predict the weather and you certainly can’t change it. Rewind to 2014. Torrential rain hammered the UK and specifically hammered Devon and Cornwall. The ensuing storm managed to flood and wash away entire sections of rail track. Gone in an instant. So you see, transport is always first to face the storm.

But with a closer look, one realises it doesn’t take a storm to cause chaos to rail down south. As recently as July of this year Southern Rail, who operate services south of London, was dubbed Southern fail by many commuters. Why? The company decided to cut 340 daily journeys. Can you imagine the sheer numbers of people scrambling to find a way to get to work? Thousands. What’s worse is this same company, Southern Rail, had the worst punctuality of all train operators in the UK in September 2015.

But the mess doesn’t end there. We need only look at the Great Western Railway electrification from Cardiff to London for further chaos. The project was set at a cost of £874 million in January 2013 and to be completed by 2018. That same project is now being projected to cost £2.8 billion and will be finished four years late, in 2022. No, being transport minister isn’t an easy job. But I can describe rail for you down south in one word – pandemonium. And it seems they aren’t making much progress.

Meanwhile in Scotland, we’ve got some issues, but we’ve got a minister who can handle them – Humza. He’s already announced an acceleration of £16 million over two years to upgrade key junctions, track and signalling, an extra 200 carriages by 2019. This and his other investment announcements will create a massive uplift in capacity between Inverness and Aberdeen over the coming years. And I’m sure his ambitions won’t end there.

But there’s another way to improve Scotland’s rail services – a new report from Scottish think tank Reform Scotland has suggested that more than 50% of trains in Scotland were delayed due to Network Rail faults rather than ScotRail. Unsurprisingly, Labour’s former Transport Minister, Tom Harris, an author of the ‘Track to the Future’ report now supports the devolution of rail infrastructure. So do I. That makes two former transport ministers – it’s time to devolve Network Rail. Humza is the right man for the job – let’s give him the power to do it right.