Dumbarton’s MSP has renewed her calls for Abellio to be stripped of its rail franchise.

Jackie Baillie hit out after press reports in Germany showed that the problems Scots are facing in their train services are also being experienced by their German counterparts.

Newspaper Mitteldeutsche Zeitung reported that Abellio’s problems with staff shortages are as commonplace in Germany as they are in Scotland.

The company is also facing similar calls for the termination of their contract from German politicians as demanded by politicians in the Scottish Parliament.

According to the German press, Abellio had first announced that it had to hire train drivers in December to secure operations on an additional 900 kilometers in the Saxony-Anhalt area.

Then, just before Christmas, the rail operator had to admit that hiring temporary staff was not enough. And more recently, it became known that the staff shortage was even greater than was previously shown.

Read more: Jackie Baillie calls for Scotrail to lose its licence

Ms Baillie said: “This report from Mitteldeautsche Zeitung echoes what I and colleagues from across the Scottish Parliament have been saying for months.

“Whether you live in Germany or Scotland, Abellio is not fit for purpose and something needs to change urgently.”

The MSP said the staff shortages and lack of proper services, raised by German transport policy spokesperson Matthias Büttner, is what Scotland is seeing day in, day out, with its rail services.

She added: “The Scottish Government needs to get it’s head out of the sand and seriously reconsider the Abellio contract in order to improve the quality of service.”

Dutch company Abellio, which was awarded the ScotRail franchise in 2015, claims since taking over it’s been “busy building the best railway Scotland has ever had”.

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