Rail passengers in England enjoy faster inter-city journeys than those in Scotland, a think-tank has found.
Reform Scotland revealed that many journeys in Scotland take longer than those covering greater distances south of the border.
An 80-mile journey from Glasgow to Dundee takes an extra 15 minutes to complete than the 96-mile service between Birmingham and Manchester, the report found.
Former Labour transport minister Tom Harris, one of the report’s authors, also dismissed calls from Scottish Labour and others for operator ScotRail to be nationalised follow over-crowding and delays.
He instead issued a plea for Network Rail’s Scottish operations to be brought under the control of ministers in Holyrood rather than those in Westminster.
Mr Harris said those calling for ScotRail to be nationalised are missing the point because most of the delays are primarily linked with Network Rail, the public sector body that maintains the UK’s railways.
“Reform Scotland believes that Network Rail in Scotland should be fully accountable to the Scottish Government, and that means it must be devolved,” he said.
A Network Rail spokesman said: “Any discussions over further devolution of Network Rail in Scotland would be a matter for those governments.”
The Scottish Government said “functions such as capacity planning, major projects delivery, legal and property management pertaining to Scotland could and should be devolved”.
But a UK Government spokeswoman said there are “no plans” to go down that route.
A ScotRail Alliance spokeswoman said: “We are going through the biggest change and improvement in our railway infrastructure since the Victorian era.
“All of this will take time but when it is all in place, we will have transformed rail travel in Scotland.”
