A Lanarkshire politician is calling on the SNP and Scottish Greens to take the Caledonian Sleeper rail service into public ownership and reintegrate it with the ScotRail franchise.
Central Scotland MSP Richard Leonard's plea comes amid news the Scottish Government is planning to hand the service back to Serco after announcing less than two months ago that it was ending the franchise from June next year.
Mr Leonard, who is also convenor of the RMT Scottish parliamentary group, and the RMT union say that if this happens it is "likely to mean the contract being awarded on more favourable terms than the original franchise agreement, with cost risk and revenue borne by the Scottish Government and Serco receiving fees, for profit, to run services".
Mr Leonard also highlighted how, under legislation, ministers had the option to put the contract out to tender, or make a "direct award" back to Serco or to a company owned and controlled by the Scottish Government - the latter effectively being public ownership.
The MSP told Lanarkshire Live : "To even contemplate handing this historic service back to Serco, which has proved time and again it is not fit to run our railways, is a betrayal of passengers and staff.
"The SNP and Greens must not bow to corporate pressure again. The Caledonian Sleeper must be brought into public ownership to be run by and for the people.”
RMT general secretary Mick Lynch added: "The Scottish Government is already running the ScotRail franchise in public ownership and it would provide better value for money for taxpayers and passengers if it were to reintegrate the Caledonian Sleeper with ScotRail.
“Therefore, it seems absurd that the Scottish Government has admitted it is considering making a further direct award to Serco, which will allow the private company to continue profiting from public funds.
“The Serco Caledonian Sleeper franchise has been beset with problems throughout the duration of the franchise, and the Scottish Government must now abandon any plans to hand it a further contract and instead commit to running Scotland’s rail passenger services in one publicly owned company.”
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