Stephen Flynn’s transport brief is already coming off the rails

STEPHEN FLYNN DID NOT cover himself in glory during his first appearance before the Scottish Parliament’s new Transport Committee this week.

The combative cabinet secretary gave the appearance of not being on top of his brief, giving a series of evasive and snarky answers to detailed questions.

But he really came unstuck when convenor Willie Rennie asked for his comments on a news report about the methane gas leak on the jinxed Glen Sannox ferry.

Mr Flynn and his officials knew nothing about it, and the minister even admitted he had been too busy to watch the news that morning because he was FaceTiming his children.

We are all entitled to family time but in his position and knowing he was about to face a grilling he should have been briefed.

The meeting got off to a bad start when he could not properly explain why Transport Scotland was “being brought into government”, whatever that means.

He was repeatedly questioned on this and left us none the wiser.

Mr Flynn did reveal that instead of the mooted Better Buses Bill we may instead see a series of separate laws.

Sadly, he could not tell us what they were meant to achieve. This, despite real concerns over the existing complicated legislation on franchising, which has so far produced not a single bus franchise in Scotland.

He has the chance to streamline things and he should take it.

Nor could he tell us what model of ferry delivery he favours, and it was crystal clear that he has not looked at some of the international examples from Canada and Norway to Australia and New Zealand.

For clarity, I have, and I have even talked to Canadian operator BC Ferries and travelled with them while on holiday.

Denmark is now on its second version of smart travel technology – nationwide

The current system, with CMAL procuring and owning the vessels and some ports, CalMac running the ferries and the soon-to-be-abolished Transport Scotland overseeing it all, is too clunky. We have known this for years and it needs to change.

Sticking with ferries, readers may recall the announcement from the former Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes that the Scottish Government wants to directly award the contract to build two more ferries to its own Fergusons yard.

Mr Flynn struck a more cautious tone, admitting that they still have to work through legal issues to see if they actually can – issues the Government has known about for years.

There was a bit more hope when it came to multimodal smart travel. He’s a fan, having spent years in London, but appeared not to have looked closely at other examples in the UK or abroad where, for example, Denmark is now on its second version of smart travel technology – nationwide.

The Programme for Government (PfG) talks about “supporting progress on the Clyde Metro proposals”, but despite the best efforts of East Kilbride MSP Collete Stevenson and me, we are no nearer finding out what that means.

It’s a phrase so woolly that my wife could knit a jumper out of the words.

Flights to and from the islands came up. They are hideously expensive as I know to my cost having booked to visit Shetland later this year, and sometimes routes simply do not pay, so operators withdraw them.

We need a better model for these lifeline services. To be fair, Mr Flynn seems alive to the issue so we will see what happens.

We didn’t even get on to roads where the SNP has been found wanting.

We can save that for another day.

We didn’t discuss active travel either. There was no mention of walking or cycling in the PfG, yet helping people to be fitter surely plays into the preventative health agenda.

As for railways, he expressed some concerns about Great British Railways, but he is very much looking at this through his nationalist lens rather than asking what’s best for consumers.

One of the key pledges in the PfG was to extend the £2 bus fare cap to Strathclyde within 100 days.

They just missed the deadline but we learned that 76 per cent of operators have signed up.

I was calling for this when the former Conservative Government introduced it down south but the SNP had to wait until they could badge it as their own idea.

We did learn that the Strathclyde scheme has a budget of up to £90m.

What we still do not know is where the money is coming from.