Phil Verster, the beleaguered boss of the ScotRail franchise, has resigned after weeks of pressure over the company’s poor performance.
His decision to quit to take up another rail industry job has plunged the Scottish government into an unexpected crisis, raising further questions about the future of the transport minister, Humza Yousaf.
The announcement came after serious doubts emerged about a headline-grabbing plan Yousaf devised to compensate regular commuters with a £3m rebate on their season tickets as an apology for months of cancellations, delays and service cuts.
As managing director of the ScotRail Alliance, Verster told MSPs this week that the Scottish government had asked him to fund part of the compensation package from a special rail improvement fund that ScotRail controls.
The fund, known as Squire, is built up from fines ScotRail has paid for its poor performance, and the £1.8m identified from it for the rebate was already earmarked for other projects. The cost of the season ticket rebate could only be met, he said, if ScotRail was fined further for more delays.
He told Holyrood’s rural affairs and connectivity committee: “I can’t vouch for whether the scheme goes ahead or not. I can just comment on whether we will make that decision, and when we’ll make the decision in the next couple of weeks in terms of how we will deploy the Squire fund.”
A respected figure within the industry, Verster is now expected to take a job renewing the rail link between Oxford and Cambridge, a far smaller task than overhauling the Scottish rail network.
He had previously been in charge of Network Rail’s London north-east area, which includes the north-east mainline.
A joint venture between the Dutch state-owned rail operator Abellio and Network Rail, ScotRail faced demands last winter that it be stripped of its franchise, which costs it £7bn over 10 years.
Scottish Labour has pressed Yousaf to justify the company’s slump in performance;, His response was to question the future of ScotRail’s franchise and said the SNP government could force it to relinquish the contract early and replace it with a publicly owned company.
Kezia Dugdale, the Scottish Labour leader, implied that Yousaf’s future was now in doubt. “It’s clear the relationship between the SNP and ScotRail has broken down,” she said. “One man has walked, and the only man left standing is Humza Yousaf. He must address this ScotRail crisis and explain to passengers when they will see improvements. The clock is ticking.”
Yousaf did not comment directly on Verster’s resignation, but a Scottish government spokesman thanked Verster “for his hard work during a transitional time in charge of Abellio ScotRail and the ScotRail Alliance” and wished him well in his next venture.
“He has overseen many improvements and considerable investment which will ultimately lead to major benefits for passengers,” the spokesman said. “As ever our focus is not on individuals, but helping the industry to deliver the best possible service for Scotland. There will be no let up as we strive to help ScotRail and others improve the passenger experience over the coming weeks and months.”
During some recent four-week periods, only four out of five ScotRail services have arrived on time. Last week the latest performance data put its average annual punctuality rating at 90% , breaching its contractual target of 91.3%.
ScotRail said the those overall performance figures showed it was the UK’s second best performing franchise, proving that its service improvement strategy was starting to work.
The Scottish Liberal Democrats said Yousaf should make an urgent statement to parliament on Verster’s departure. “It is obvious to me that Mr Verster was under incredible pressure when he couldn’t answer in detail questions the committee was asking him,” said Mike Rumbles, the Lib Dem transport spokesman.
Alison Johnstone, the Scottish Green party’s transport spokeswoman, said ScotRail had to take urgent action to address the “dismal” situation for rail users.
“There’s no question that ScotRail’s performance as of late has not been good enough and the punctuality of services have been below the standard expected by commuters,” she said. “Abellio need to understand that poor service is unacceptable and that offers of compensation should be automatic and easy to complete.”
