Louts could be banned from ScotRail services under radical plans being considered by Scottish Government ministers to make the railways safer for the public.
Rail unions and passenger surveys regularly list anti-social behaviour - particularly on late-night trains - as a subject of major concern.
But the British Transport Police (BTP) is largely powerless to prevent repeat troublemakers from boarding carriages even if they have been spotted after being ejected from another train.
Jenny Gilruth - who was appointed transport minister in January - told MSPs today that new legislation could be required to fix the problem.
The SNP MSP told Holyrood's transport committee: "A frustration I have heard from conversations with unions is people would be identified because of their behaviour - but they would be back on the train the next day or in a couple of hours.
"It is demoralising for staff.
"So we have to look again at the provisions in the legislation and work with BTP to ensure we get this right.
"I want to ensure public ownership of the railways doesn't rule anything out and we look at all available opportunities to consider how we support staff.
"No one deserves to go to their work and face abuse."
Bill Reeve, rail director at Transport Scotland, told MSPs there were not existing powers to ban people from trains "who exhibit anti-social behaviour in the way there are to ban people from football matches".
"It's something we have commenced discussions with justice colleagues and something we would like to follow-up with the British Transport Police.
"It's certainly something we feel deserves further consideration."
All ScotRail services will be taken under Scottish Government control from April 1 when the existing franchise deal with Abellio is terminated at the end of this month.
It comes at a time of intense pressure on the railway network caused by the coronavirus pandemic which saw passenger numbers plummet dramatically.
SNP ministers remain reluctant to encourage workers to return to offices full-time but must now find a way of compensating for the subsequent decline in commuters using the train.
ScotRail is already running fewer services than it was in the weeks leading up to the first lockdown in March 2020 but there are fears of further cuts if passenger numbers do not increase further.
Gilruth said weekend services were already busy but added the publicly-run ScotRail would have to find a way of matching services to customer demand.
Asked whether ticket offices would be closed, she added: "The way people use our railways has changed in the last 30 years.
"People now buy their tickets online - but that shouldn't discount from the debate we're having on ticket offices and their place in a modern railway network.
"But fundamentally our railway in public ownership has to best meet passenger need. We need to be more responsive as a government and public ownership will allow us to do that."
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