Leader comment: Train passengers playing sardines with strangers

Spare a thought for rush-hour train commuters travelling between Glasgow and Edinburgh.

Some rush-hour ScotRail are now more packed than usual

Many passengers now find themselves crammed into three or four carriages, rather than the usual six, after ScotRail failed to ensure replacements for trains whose lease is up. The situation is expected to continue until May at the earliest.

New electric trains were supposed to have started running on the line in September, but their introduction was delayed first by problems electrifying the line and then by production issues at the Hitachi plant in County Durham. ScotRail may insist such issues were beyond their control, but the complaint from train drivers that they cannot see signals properly through the curved cab windows appears to have come remarkably late in the process.

It is possible the cabs will now have to be retrofitted, potentially adding to the delay.

Surely one fairly obvious thing to do when ordering new trains is to make sure the drivers are reasonably happy at an early stage, given the cab is their place of work and they are responsible for the safety of everyone on board.