ScotRail boss apologises to passengers and admits new app launch 'wasn't good enough'

ScotRail’s managing director has apologised to travellers for difficulties with its new app, admitting to MSPs it “hasn’t been good enough”.

With some 3,000 complaints said to have been made about the app within ten days of it being launched on July 30, Joanne Maguire conceded: “We let our passengers down.”

SilverRail Technologies had won an £83m, nine-year contract to provide the app for ScotRail, with Ms Maguire telling Holyrood’s Transport Committee they were the only “compliant bidder” for the work.

The launch of the app at the end of July came in what was said to be the busiest week for ScotRail since it was taken into public ownership.

Ms Maguire told MSPs that SilverRail had made background changes to the operating system “at very short notice” before the app went live.

When that happened, some travellers reported being locked out of their account, with others unable to purchase tickets.

The ScotRail managing director said: “Everything was going well up until less than 24 hours before the launch.”

She said while there had been “internal user testing” of the app, there had not been the opportunity to test it with travellers – with Ms Maguire thanking them for “their patience during this time”.

She went on to tell the committee that ScotRail “will be forensically examining what could have been done differently”.

But while she said the rail firm is “doing everything we possibly can” to address the issues, she refused to guarantee the problems would be fixed by Christmas.

Pressed on the matter by committee convener Willie Rennie, Ms Maguire said: “I absolutely give this committee my commitment that we are working day in, day out and it will be as early as we possibly can.”

Rennie responded: “So you’re not confident by Christmas.”

Ms Maguire said ScotRail is “acutely aware” of the problems with the app.

She said: “The launch of the app hasn’t been good enough and for that I apologise. I apologise to the committee, and I apologise to all of our passengers.”

Speaking about the difficulties some travellers have had, Ms Maguire said: “We know that day one wasn’t good enough. We had significant challenges with log-ons and there have then been six others days when we’ve had challenges, and the service we have provided hasn’t been good enough.”

But she insisted the app is “an investment that will make improvements for our passengers” – although she added these had not yet been seen by travellers “because what we are focused on is stabilising the day-to-day delivery and operation of the app”.

ScotRail is still having daily calls with SilverRail, as well as “repeated calls” throughout the day, Ms Maguire added.

Mr Rennie said he is a frequent traveller on ScotRail “and almost every day that I travel I see people having problems”.

He told Ms Maguire: “I myself had a problem last week going into Glasgow Queen Street returning to Edinburgh where my return ticket wouldn’t show on the system.

“Staff were very good, they let me through, but I see other people encountering similar problems.”

He said he was “disappointed” an up to date figure for the number of complaints received so far was not available.

He also said SilverRail has a “track record of having problems” with similar apps for other rail firms, though Ms Maguire told him ScotRail had been “assured” the company had “learned from that and improvements had been made”.