Phil Verster from the Scotrail Alliance says it was misleading to say there was only going to be a driver on the train and says a solution to the industrial action has been found.

Green MSP John Finnie says there were a number of trains with only a driver which impacted on disabled passengers.

Image source, bbc

Mr Verster accepts it is not ideal when that happens and in the last couple of weeks there has been a reduction of trains running like that. 

Signalling problems caused delays and cancellations on the Borders Railway on the day it reached the first anniversary of its opening.

ScotRail said disruption on the route between Tweedbank and Edinburgh lasted until about 19:00.

Image source, DOUGIE JOHNSTON

A train shuttle service was running between Newcraighall and Tweedbank with a bus replacement between Newcraighall and Edinburgh.

The first services ran on the new route on 6 September 2015.

It has exceeded forecast usage figures of 650,000 passengers a year within its first 

Mr Verster says the Borders Railway has been a huge economic success. 

Mr Verster concedes that ScotRail Alliance's "customers have had a rough summer", with Industrial relations, strikes and technical problems.

He says the alliance has spent more money on improvement programmes and asks customers to bear with it. 

Mr Verster says they take customer complaints very seriously and improvements are being made.

The RMT union hailed what it claims is a "major victory" in a dispute which led to strikes across Scotland's rail network yesterday. 

It's reached an agreement with ScotRail which protects the role of guards on trains. 

Image source, bbc

Strikes began in June, over the issue of who should open and close train doors - the conductor, or the driver.

Further planned industrial action was suspended earlier this month to allow for talks.

Phil Verster says the Borders is a fantastic railway and it is a big success.

Mr Verster says it has not been without its challenges such as crew shortages which is unfortunate. 

He says this is why it is important to shut down the strike which has been done after positive discussions with RMT.

Mr Verster says there is new testing and work being done frequently on the line to minimise faults.

He says there is a focus on dealing with ongoing problems and teams on the ground are dedicated and doing all they can to fix issues. 

Last month it was announced that strikes planned by ScotRail workers are off for the time being to allow further talks with union bosses.

Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union are fighting plans to have drivers instead of guards operate the doors on some services.

The union insist the dispute is about "ensuring that Scotland's trains run safely".

But ScotRail said the RMT had been running a campaign of "disinformation that doesn't bear any scrutiny".

In a statement, RMT General Secretary Mick Cash said: "The union has made sufficient progress to enable us to suspend the current programme of industrial action on ScotRail to allow for further detailed discussions on the issue of platform train despatch procedures.

Lib Dem MSP Mike Rumbles asks about the Aberdeen to Inverness railway line and says the OSS has warned the project may delayed by some years.

Phil Verster says the aspirations for capacity increases from Aberdeen to Inverness is a 75% increase in seat capacity with an every half hour service.

Image source, bbc

He says the initial exercise to determine the railway was very much a strategic and planning process without enough evidence.

The managing director of the ScotRail Alliance says "We are not delcaring it will be years late, that is not on the cards."

He adds: "It will be delivered in two phases."

Mr Verster says quite a lot of the cost movements are due to this type of compliance issue.

The managing director of the ScotRail Alliance says "this is not money wasted", it's delivering a scope that is different to the original project specifications and costs.

Image source, Transport Scotland

He says Transport Scotland will declare the full impact on EGIP at the end of October.

Mr Mason asks when the trains will be running on the line.

Mr Verster says the first electric trains arrive in September of next year.

SNP MSP John Mason says it is disappointing that the Edinburgh Glasgow Improvement Programme (EGIP) went so wrong when so many others went well.

Mr Verster says, of 16 projects, 10 were delivered on time and another four are scheduled to be delivered on time.

He says EGIP is one of two projects that haven't gone well and this is largely due to compliance issues.

Image source, PA

Karl Budge of Network Rail says there are various EU and UK standards that have to be met and these can be interpreted differently.

Mr Budge says some of the compliance issues have been down to interpretation of electrification of the railways.

He says one such issue was the distance between some of the overhead wires.

Committee convener Edward Mountain asks about the seven months delay to EGIP, external.

Mr Verster says in January the EGIP team indicated to him there were delays of around eight weeks.

Image source, bbc

He says he instigated reviews and assessments which helped rectify issues.

The managing director of Scotrail Alliance says in March more problems were found on EGIP and then cost estimates were provided.

Mr Mountain says in May the delay had gone to seven months and he asks for the date and timeline to be given to the committee at a later date.

Phil Verster from the ScotRail Alliance says there has been a significant limit on resources on electrification, projects but project management has been improved.

"When we realised that EGIP was behind programme, we changed the management significantly."

SNP MSP Stewart Stevenson says he will focus on EGIP (Edinburgh Glasgow Improvement Programme) and Network Rail.

Network Rail's Karl Budge says there are a number of national issues and there has been a massive leap in electrification.

Mr Budge says there is an Enhancements Improvement Plan to improve infrastructure projects.

He says the OOR will report on this to Transport Scotland by the end of October.

Phil Verster from the ScotRail Alliance says the logic behind the alliance is that the customer on the ground does not want to know the logistics of how the rail service is organised.

Mr Verster says the purpose of the alliance is to join both ScotRail and Network Rail to provide a more customer focused service. 

Responding to the ORR annual assessment, Phil Verster, managing director of Network Rail Scotland and of the ScotRail Alliance said: "Our Network Rail project teams and their suppliers have a strong and proud track record in Scotland of delivering on-time and on-budget. We need look no further than the Borders Railway line to see evidence of that.

Image source, Borders Railway

"The programme impacts highlighted will not delay the introduction of our exciting new fleet of faster, longer, greener trains - nor will they impact on our ability to deliver the 200 new services and 20,000 extra seats promised in the Revolution in Rail timetable change.

"Very importantly, our teams have learnt valuable lessons from the circumstances, decisions and programme impacts over the last months."

In its annual assessment of Network Rail, the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) said it had concerns "regarding the ability of key projects to meet their obligations and regulatory milestones".

Chief executive Joanna Whittington said: "Network Rail has successfully delivered some major enhancement projects in the past year, including Scotland's first new rail line in over 100 years, the Borders Railway.

"However, there are cost and delivery issues on other projects which need to be addressed.

Image source, Reuters

The report revealed that electric services will not run on the Edinburgh-Glasgow line until July 2017 - seven months behind schedule.

Mr Yousaf said the cost of the project had also increased beyond the previous £742m estimate.

He added: "I am not prepared to simply accept the long-term cost implications, nor the revised programmes that Network Rail have set out.

Phil Verster, the managing directer of ScotRail Alliance, says the changes will be a "significantly different railway" and a positive new railway in the future.

Phil Verster from the ScotRail Alliance says there are four big changes for Scotland's railways which are:

• Infrastructure projects
• Increase in fleet size
• Products offered to customers such as InterCity railway
• Employee investment