Humza Yousaf rejects calls to quit as transport minister

Humza Yousaf (right) spoke to passengers at Glasgow railway stations

Transport Minister Humza Yousaf has said he will not quit amid growing criticism of Scotland's rail service.

Train drivers union Aslef called for him to be sacked following widespread disruption across the network on Thursday.

It follows growing dissatisfaction with Scotrail over delayed, cancelled and overcrowded trains.

During a visit to Glasgow's Queen Street station, Mr Yousaf said he would "most certainly not" quit his post.

Mr Yousaf spent the morning rush hour at Glasgow's Queen St station.

He was trying to reassure commuters after one broken-down train caused chaos on the railways, which affected thousands of people on Thursday morning.

Nicola Sturgeon apologised for Thursday's rail problems during First Minister's Questions.

She told MSPs that the option of stripping operator Abellio of the ScotRail franchise was being kept under review.

In an interview with BBC Radio Scotland, Mr Yousaf said the firm faced "very, very serious consequences" if performance did not improve.

The transport minister wanted to see the problems first hand

Asked if he would step down, he said: "My job is to make sure the railways are running, to make sure the buses are as efficient as possible, to make sure our trunk road network is moving.

"I am committed to doing that job, as you would imagine I am, and I will be, monitoring things absolutely closely.

"Yes of course there's an apology there for commuters that were disrupted yesterday but an assurance from ScotRail, from me, that we are monitoring things closely and I expect improvements to happen and happen immediately."

When he was again asked if he would leave his job, he said: "Most certainly not."

The breakdown in Edinburgh affected train services across the country

The disruption to the rail service on Thursday was caused by a broken down train between Haymarket and Waverly stations in Edinburgh.

It affected passengers in the central belt but it also caused delays to trains travelling to Inverness, Aberdeen and on the Borders Railway.

One traveller told BBC Scotland she had been on a train for more than three hours. "It's an absolute shambles, an absolute joke," she said.

Another said: "I was told to get off in Polmont, we just had to stand there. No-one told us what was going on. We were told there was replacement bus services but they never came."

A third commuter said Haymarket station was "like a scene from a zombie movie".

He added: "There was a lot of unfortunate people there, not quite sure what was going on."

Mick Whelan, general secretary of the train drivers' union Aslef, said: "The Scottish government response to the rail crisis has been pathetic.

"Transport Minister Humza Yousaf has stood by while Abellio Scotrail takes Scotland's passengers and taxpayers for a ride."

He called for Mr Yousaf to be sacked and for ScotRail to be brought into public ownership.

Speaking at First Minister's Questions, Ms Sturgeon told the chamber: "I am sorry for the disruption that was caused this morning and also sorry for any disruption that any passenger faces on any day of the week. That is ScotRail's position and it is also mine."

Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale had raised the issue of the train problems saying it had been "yet another shambolic day on our railways, causing misery for passengers".

Dutch rail operator Abellio began to operate the ScotRail franchise in April 2015.

Last month ScotRail was fined £483,000 for failing to meet required standards for trains and stations.

And government agency Transport Scotland instructed the operator to draw up a performance improvement plan after reliability dropped.

ScotRail announced on Wednesday that it was to stop its much-criticised policy of allowing late-running trains to skip stops to improve punctuality during rush hour.

• Look back at First Minister's Questions when the train disruption issue was raised by Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale.

The operator said it would learn from Thursday's events and "can never stop striving to improve".