TRANSPORT minister Jenny Gilruth has insisted the Government cannot move forward with its future vision for Scotland's railway unless unions accept the latest pay offer from ScotRail.
Gilruth urged unions Aslef and RMT to accept a 4.2% pay rise so "we can get on and make public ownership of Scotland's railway a success".
Passengers were angered on Sunday as 320 services were cancelled.
The train operator implemented a temporary timetable for Saturday but did not manage to do the same for Sunday given that drivers are refusing to work rest days and Sundays.
Gilruth faced questions in the Holyrood chamber over the fiasco on Tuesday including from SNP MSP John Mason, who asked whether she would encourage unions to accept the latest offer.
He said: "Clearly everybody would like to have a pay increase that matches inflation, but clearly this is not affordable. Would the minister encourage unions to accept the pay offer? It will help us recover from the pandemic and it will also help us address climate change."
Gilruth said in response: "The importance of Scotland's railway in terms of our recovery from the pandemic cannot be underlined enough.
"I think in relation to climate change we need to facilitate the modal shift to get folk out of their cars and back onto public transport.
"I think there is more too that can be done in relation to the cost-of-living. ScotRail have announced a number of ticket offers recently and I’m keen that continues but ee can do very little to take forward our vision for ScotRail, of course, one that’s largely shared with our trade union partners who campaigned for public ownership, with reduced timetables and fewer services so I do hope union members consider the current offer positively and they will see it as both fair and affordable and we can all get on and work together to make public ownership of Scotland’s railway a success."
Tory MSP Graham Simpson questioned whether the Government had any contingency plan should the latest offer be rejected.
Gilruth did not make it clear one way or the other but said the situation passengers were facing at the moment was not unique to Scotland.
She added: "ScotRail will look at what more can be done to improve weekend service.
"Transpennine Express is operating a reduced timetable currently, similarly at around 70%.
"The Northern train operating company has also experienced similar disruption this weekend.
"I am told that because ScotRail did not have enough drivers on Sunday, it was very difficult to timetable on Sunday."
Aslef members are to vote on the latest offer this week while RMT will hold separate negotiations with ScotRail on Tuesday.
