ScotRail Temporarily Trims Timetable Due to Pay Dispute With Staff. This move is designed to minimize hassle to passengers. Nearly 600 services have been axed as of Wednesday to ensure “certainty as well as reliability”. This follows the decision of four unions to reject last week a pay offer by the company, which translated to 25% of abandoned services on Sunday. The suspension has consequently brought the operations of most affected routes to very low frequencies and ended others earlier than has been the norm. It is similar to two years ago when a pay dispute caused widespread disruption across Scotland’s rail network over the summer.

ScotRail is set to have some 1,660 trains running during the weekdays and Saturdays under the new plans. The peak hour morning and later afternoons will have the number reduced from four hours to two-hour train services. The changed routes are to Edinburgh to Glasgow and services north of the central belt. Mark Ilderton, the service delivery director for ScotRail, advised the traveling public to monitor their journey details in advance to avoid inconvenience.

“We are very sorry to customers for the disruption to services,” said Ilderton. “We are running the services that most customers use and we plan on using all the available trains so customers can continue to travel. We want to resolve the pay dispute with the trade unions and remain fully committed to further discussions.”

Aslef, the train drivers’ union, informed ScotRail that it would ballot for industrial action after members refused the pay offer. Some drivers have begun refusing to work extra shifts on Sundays and overtime, which has hit services. The other unions that refused the increase offer were Unite, the RMT, and TSSA.

Joanne Maguire, managing director of ScotRail, said the operator had learned from previous strikes and implemented a timetable that is “the most reliable” possible with current staffing levels. She also stressed the fact that ScotRail was making a huge effort to bridge the gap with the unions, and repelled accusations that the company put too much reliance on rest day working. “The fact this timetable has over one hundred more services per day than two years ago illustrates progress and proves we are less reliant on rest day working,” she said. “We have been working really hard to negotiate a fair pay deal for our staff that also provides value for money to the taxpayer.”

The publicly-owned firm got ensnared in a dispute with unions during the summer that resulted in hundreds of services being axed, with parts of the rail network grinding to a halt. ScotRail is aiming to recruit 160 new train drivers in a bid to boost reliability. This is all coming against the backdrop of an accusation lodged at the Scottish Government by Aslef that nothing is being done to resolve the issue of driver shortages and the lack of pay. Kevin Lindsay, Aslef’s Scottish organiser, said: ‘Instead of axing the timetable, ScotRail and the Scottish government need to pull their fingers out on pay and work round the clock to come up with a credible offer before the end of June.

The cutback in the timetable resulted in a blow to passengers of the rail service, said Douglas Lumsden, spokesman for Scottish Conservatives Transport. “These vast reduced services will severely affect commuters and holiday makers over the school summer holidays,” he said. He called for the Scottish government to sort out the dispute as strictly its own business. “With major national events on the horizon, it is imperative that John Swinney and his colleagues resolve this dispute before it further damages the Scottish economy.”.

A spokeswoman for Transport Scotland said it was for Scotrail to decide how to plan the trains and make up the rotas of staff. However, she added, it expects the timetable to give the best reliability and availability as far as passengers are concerned. “The rail unions have made their position absolutely clear – they are seeking a fair settlement on behalf of their members. ScotRail is required to settle within the parameters of the public sector pay policy. “Offers made above this level also call for the approval of the Scottish government. We urge rail unions to continue their talks with ScotRail for a resolution to be reached soon, which is acceptable to all parties.