Daniel Sanderson Scottish Correspondent 23 May 2022 8:07pm BST Nicola Sturgeon has been urged to personally intervene to end chaos on Scotland’s railways after unions accused her ministers

of inflaming tensions around a pay dispute. Aslef, the train drivers union, called on the First Minister to show “leadership” and make a “positive political intervention” by ordering

ScotRail to resume pay talks, as almost 700 services on the newly-nationalised operator were cut because of a lack of drivers. While there is no formal industrial action, drivers are

refusing to work overtime on their days off, which the operator had previously relied upon to offer a normal timetable. The stand-off follows a pay offer of 2.2 per cent, branded “derisory”

“shambolic”. He accused SNP ministers of making matters worse with a series of “inflammatory, unreasonable and factually incorrect” interjections. Over the weekend, Richard Lochhead,

Scotland’s employment minister, called for workers to ensure that requests for pay rises were “affordable”. Meanwhile, Jenny Gilruth, the Scottish transport minister, insisted that ScotRail

was “doing all they can” to find a solution. However, no new formal talks have been scheduled and Aslef claimed its offer to resume negotiations at any time had been shunned by ScotRail.

“The way hard-working, committed and skilled rail staff are being treated is appalling,” Mr Lindsay said in a letter to the First Minister. “The pay award being offered is just not credible.

  “The language and behaviour of Scottish ministers have too often been inflammatory, unreasonable and factually incorrect. There is also a complete lack of transparency around the backroom,

and a negative role being played by ministers and officials in your government. “Sadly, up until now, there has been negative political interference. It is now time for positive political

intervention and leadership from you with an instruction to ScotRail to enter as a matter of urgency meaningful pay talks with the full intention to sensibly settle these pay negotiations.”

ScotRail came into public ownership in April after the contract with Abellio, the previous operator, ended early. At the time, Ms Sturgeon hailed the move as historic, but it has taken just

weeks for unprecedented service cuts to arise. ScotRail said that the pandemic has fuelled the driver shortage as it was forced to suspend training programmes. However, Aslef said that a

promised 130 new drivers would be nowhere near enough to operate a seven-day service without relying on voluntary overtime. The scaled-back timetable, which will remain in place

indefinitely, means that the last train between Glasgow and Edinburgh leaves at 10.15pm. The final service between Glasgow and Dundee is at 7.10pm, four hours earlier than last week, with

similar cuts on all other major routes. Graham Simpson, the Scottish Tories’ transport spokesman, accused Ms Gilruth of “shamefully passing the buck” after she insisted that settling the

dispute was a matter for ScotRail and trade unions. ScotRail ownership history “Those passengers and businesses who are being massively affected will find it extraordinary that the minister

responsible can say that ScotRail are doing all they can at this time,” he said. “There are serious questions to answer as to why negotiations are not urgently taking place on the day this

drastically reduced ‘Natrail’ timetable has come into force.” Meanwhile, ScotRail insisted that train drivers’ demands were unrealistic. Drivers typically earn more than £50,000 per year at

the moment. David Simpson, the operator’s service delivery manager, said: “The demands of 10 per cent to 11 per cent are just not sustainable in the current economic climate with the

railway. “We need to find a way around that. We need to recognise the kind of demands the unions are making, but also the need to demonstrate taxpayer value.”