Fife MSP calls for Scotrail operator to be stripped of licence after weekend chaos

It was the last weekend of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and the city hosted a rugby international.

That led to overcrowded trains and cancelled services, leaving hundreds of people stranded.

Scotrail has launched its own inquiry into what went wrong, but Claire Baker MSP has said enough is enough.

She said: “The additional demands on services related to the rugby at Murrayfield and the final weekend of the Fringe were entirely foreseeable but Scotrail was unable to plan to meet this, leaving passengers subject to chaos, cancellations and severe overcrowding.

You may also be interested in:

Community champions celebrated at Local hero awards

Award-winning toy store opens in Glenrothes

Punk poet John Cooper Clarke set for Fife gig

“Rail passengers have endured sub-standard services for far too long, with the weekend’s shambles another shocking example of Abellio’s mismanagement of Scotrail and its inability to adequately plan and deliver the service it is contracted to. The investigation being carried out the ScotRail is the minimum that should be expected, the Scottish Government needs to take action and strip Abellio of its contract.

“Unfortunately for Fife commuters, overcrowding, delays and cancellations are nothing new with passengers too often subject to this when travelling by train. The service being provided is simply not good enough and something must be done. Abellio has repeatedly shown it is unable to deliver.”

A spokesman for Scotrail apologised for the chaos and added: “We’re sorry to our customers who experienced disruption and busy services yesterday.

“We do all that we can to meet demand. Every available train we have was out on the network to get our customers where they needed to be.

Passengers took to social media to vent their fury with pictures showing packed carriages and people left on the platforms as the last trains departed.