Scottish Greens MSP John Finnie says it is important that the minister recognises the level of dissatisfaction he asks for commuters to receive a compensation form rather than have to go looking for one.

Transport Minister says there should not be "additional hoops to jump through" for compensation when passengers have not received a good service.

Mr Yousaf says he has asked Scotrail to look at compensation processes. 

Labour MSP James Kelly says it is totally unacceptable that too many trains are overcrowded at peak time, while Abellio continue to rake in millions of pounds of profits.

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Mr Yousaf says there has been a huge increase in passenger growth, but since 2007 the government has introduced 140 carriages.

The minister says the government will provide an additional 200 carriages up to 2019.

Transport Minister Humza Yousaf he won't respond to "petty and pathetic attacks" from Labour MSP Neil Bibby. 

Mr Yousaf says passengers watching this want to know what improvements are being made and there have been improvements in the past eight weeks.

He says the improvements take the service to a higher level than it was under the Scottish Labour government.

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Labour MSP Neil Bibby says staff morale is at rock bottom and says Mr Yousaf has fallen out with all parties.

Mr Bibby says: "He claimed he wasn't a transport expert and he is right."

The Labour MSP says the minister must accept he has got it wrong. 

Transport Minister Humza Yousaf says he rejects the proposition that the railways are a shambles.

Mr Yousaf says ScotRail are performing 2% above the UK average.

He says the government are accelerating £16m of funding in the infrastructure, £14m in the fleet and a skip stop protocol has been introduced.

The minister says: "Passengers are getting action from this Scottish government."

He says the public sector bid was in the SNP's manifesto.

Scottish Conservative MSP Murdo Fraser says the transport minister thought he would escape media scrutiny because of the Autumn Statement but failed because of further delays.

Mr Fraser says the minister said yesterday that the rail service "isn't bad".

He asks when there will be improvements, he says passengers want improvements now. 

Mr Yousaf concludes calling for the chamber to join him in supporting the efforts and actions of the management and staff of ScotRail in delivering their improvement plans and making a resounding success of the franchise. 

Rail union RMT has called for urgent talks with Mr Yousaf on public ownership of the railways.

General secretary Mick Cash said: "He has fired the starting gun on a programme for bringing ScotRail into the public sector and it's now time for his words to be turned into action. 

"Any failure to now deliver, and any dragging of heels, would rightly provoke a massive public backlash."

Charlotte Twyning of Abellio UK, said it would have "no problem" competing with public bids for Scotland's rail contract.

She added: "However, it should be recognised that half of the rail industry is already nationalised in the form of Network Rail and any operator that runs the ScotRail franchise - public or private - does so to a tightly specified Scottish government contract.

"Ministers set fares and essentially determine how many seats are available and therefore how much overcrowding exists across the network.

"We acknowledge that the performance of the ScotRail Alliance is not good enough, but we are working hard with our clients - Transport Scotland and the Scottish government - to make the changes necessary to improve the service to rail passengers. We are also encouraging Network Rail in particular to raise its game."

The transport minister says an extra 200 carriages will follow in the next 30 months.

He says that means 50% more carriages than in 2007. 

Mr Yousaf says the government is investing twice as much per capita as the UK Government in the existing network.

Mr Yousaf says the government are investing £5bn up to 2019 to transform the railway with huge increases in carriages, seats and services. 

He says since 2007 140 extra carriages have been introduced to the ScotRail fleet.

The minister says he knows overcrowding is frustrating for passengers when it happens. 

He says the government are finalising details to provide more carriages from mid-December on both the morning and evening key peak time service on the Borders Railway.

Mr Yousaf says £14m is being spent on improving the overall reliability of the ScotRail fleet.

He says a skip stop protocol has been introduced to protect peak-time commuters and reduce the instances of stops being missed.

The minister says: "Passengers want to see action now to strengthen the reliability of the rail infrastructure across the network: £16m of investment has been brought forward over and above that planned already to upgrade key junctions, track and signalling equipment."

ScotRail was ordered to produce a performance improvement plan in September after punctuality and reliability fell below the expected standard.

The latest performance data showed 86% of ScotRail trains were on time or less than five minutes late between 16 October and 12 November, with wide variations in reliability across the country.

ScotRail's figures remained better than the average for all UK train operators, external - with the company also enjoying better than average customer satisfaction figures, external when the latest data was published earlier this year.

Mr Yousaf says he instructed ScotRail on 23 August to develop a Performance Improvement Plan and to deliver improvements to the customer experience.

That plan was published on 20 October. 

The minister says the ORR, the independent regulator, has confirmed that it is robust, challenging but deliverable.

He says there are some 250 individual actions within the plan and work is well under way to deliver them.

Mr Yousaf says ScotRail has learned lessons to ensure that they are better prepared for contingencies and communication with passengers when such incidents do take place.

He says there was a much more responsive reaction by ScotRail to the incident which regrettably affected large numbers of commuters in the Glasgow area.

Dutch firm Abellio took over the ScotRail franchise in April last year in a 10-year deal worth up to £6bn but with the option for the Scottish government to cancel it at the halfway point.

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Image source, bbc

But ScotRail was forced to produce a performance improvement plan in September, at the request of Transport Scotland, after punctuality and reliability fell below standard.

A train breakdown in Edinburgh last Thursday caused widespread disruption for commuters, with First Minister Nicola Sturgeon apologising for the situation.

The latest performance data showed 86% of ScotRail trains were on time or less than five minutes late between 16 October and 12 November.