Commuter anger after ScotRail app crashes again

Image caption, There were lengthy queues at Glasgow Central station

Rush-hour commuters were left frustrated after the ScotRail app crashed for the second time in month.

Lengthy queues were reported at some of the country's busiest stations, including Glasgow Central.

The RMT union said the outage, which lasted more than an hour, highlighted the importance of station staffing numbers.

ScotRail later apologised to customers, many of whom had expressed anger over the disruption on social media.

Emma Scullion travels from the Renfrewshire village of Howwood to Glasgow for her work.

She said: "I was stuck in a queue at Glasgow Central for 45 minutes recently and was late to work.

"Today I was lucky and managed to grab the conductor on the train but this app has impacted a lot of people getting to work.

"ScotRail still insist people who pre-bought tickets on the app then buy another ticket at the station and just ask for a refund for the ticket bought via the app. The problem is their fault and people are late to work because of it."

Image caption, The ScotRail app was down for more than an hour

Mick Hogg, RMT Scotland organiser, believes that the issues showed the importance of stations being manned with enough staff.

He said: "There is nothing worse than being stuck in a slow-moving queue and waiting for a ticket.

"ScotRail can encourage people to use their apps and buy tickets in advance, but there needs to be sufficient staff available in case of difficulty.

"It also means that the staff there are the ones dealing with angry complaints from commuters because of the delays."

Mr Hogg said staffing was also important to help the most vulnerable passengers and ensure people felt "secure and safe".

The ScotRail app is operated by online ticket seller the Trainline.

The outage affected the Journey Search aspect of the app and lasted from about 08:00 until 09:15.

Phil Campbell, ScotRail customer operations director, said: "We're sorry to customers who were inconvenienced by this incident, and we share their frustration.

"Our network provider worked as quickly as possible to get systems back up and running and restore services on the ScotRail app."