Chamber and committees

Were you going to help me by explaining who does what, which I found difficult to understand in the previous session?

We will now hear from a panel of Scottish train operators. I am pleased to welcome Alex Hynes, managing director of Scotland’s Railway; David Lowrie, chief executive officer of Scottish Rail Holdings Ltd; Joanne Maguire, chief operating officer of ScotRail Trains Ltd; and Liam Sumpter, route director at Network Rail Scotland. Thank you for accepting our invitation to attend.

Before we begin questions, Alex Hynes will make a short opening statement on the panel’s behalf. While you are at it, will you help me? During the previous panel session, I was confused and muddled about who does what and who reports to whom, as were the union representatives. Will you explain that briefly while making your opening statement?

You have made an interesting point, and I would like to hear what Kevin Lindsay and Robert Sansom think about it. I spent the weekend struggling to understand who reports to whom and at which level, but after spending three days on it, I am still no clearer. I am supposed to be in the know about what is going on, but that was opaque and confusing to me. Thank you for trying to explain it. I am not sure that I am any clearer, but that is no criticism of you—it is a criticism of the system.

What you have suggested—I want to understand this—is that, now, any pay rises have to be approved by the Scottish Government, although the decision is made by an arm’s-length company. Is that what you are saying?

I think that that would be useful for the committee to understand it. I am sorry, Jackie—I jumped in on your question.

I would like to ask a question. What percentage of tickets are bought online? How many people buy their tickets at the station, relative to the number of people who go on to Trainline—or however else they do it—to buy their tickets? Do you know the answer to that?

Everyone is ducking.

The report came up with a lot of recommendations. Have you worked out how much all that is going to cost? If it is going to cost more money than you get at the moment, do you have an idea of the percentage increase that you will need in the budget in order to start delivering on the things that you have been asked to do?

Sorry but, before we go back to Ash Regan, my problem is that that is chicken and egg. You do not want funding to be ring fenced, and you will give an assurance that it will be paid in the right direction provided that it is for the long term; however, surely the Government will just come back and say that it wants it to be ring fenced and that it will be for the long term. Is that an oversimplification?

I am sorry, Ash. I jumped in—I apologise—so back to you.