SCOTTISH ministers are putting passengers and rail staff at risk of “disaster” by failing to ensure there are guards aboard trains, the Scottish TUC Congress heard today.

In 2016, strike action saw off a planned expansion of driver-only operation on ScotRail, but over half of Scottish trains still run without guards, rail unions said.

Protocol says trains should still run with a second member of staff on board, but this is not mandatory.

RMT delegate Michelle Boyle, a ScotRail guard, told the congress there had recently been an arson incident on a Scottish train running without a second staff member.

She said a passenger was able to extinguish the fire, but, “if they hadn’t, the consequences may have been disastrous.”

She also warned that, as a result of understaffing, “the staff morale is so low and we’ve never seen it as bad.”

Aslef Scottish organiser Kevin Lindsay said: “The rail industry is now looking at driver-only as the norm. It’s a way to drive down costs for the privateers.”

Speakers called on Scottish Transport Minister Humza Yousaf to change the official protocols to make a second member of staff a necessity.

The conference also endorsed calls for Scotland’s railways and ferry services to be returned to public ownership.

Maritime union Nautilus delegate Martyn Gray said Brexit “should finally free the Scottish government” from EU competition laws that require transport services to be put out to tender.

But Transport Salaried Staffs Association general secretary Manuel Cortes said that EU directives did not require privatisation and that the SNP was merely using them as an excuse.

“The SNP talks a good game, but, when it comes to delivering, they always fall short,” he said.

Unite delegate Mick Rice urged the RMT to campaign for a better ferry service to the town of Dunoon, which lies on the Cowal peninsula on Scotland’s west coast.

He said that, if the union took up the fight, [RMT general secretary] Mick Cash “will be the darling of Dunoon” and “we will have a public subscription for a statue of Mick Cash looking down over the harbour.”

* Manuel Cortes of TSSA is due to meet Humza Yousaf in Edinburgh tomorrow morning for crunch talks to resolve the ScotRail CCTV dispute. Workers are set to strike over significant job cuts at the rail firm. STUC Congress is also due to hear an emergency motion on the subject tomorrow.