A Facebook campaign has been launched to try to restore a historic rail link between Perth and Edinburgh.
Liz Smith, Scottish Conservative MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, has been instrumental in attempting to garner support for the move.
It is claimed that travel times between the Scottish capital and the north could be cut by reopening Kinross rail station.
A petition was launched last month by the Tories in an attempt to highlight the issue, which is aimed at attracting investment in transport infrastructure in Scotland.
Kinross rail station was closed in the 1970s to make way for the M90 motorway.
Transform Scotland, the national alliance for sustainable transport, claims the reopening of the Perth to Edinburgh rail line will cut at least 30 minutes off the commute between the two cities.
And Ms Smith, who claimed the campaign is “resonating” with people across Perthshire, Kinross-shire and Fife, said there has been good support for the ambitious plan.
“I hope that the Facebook campaign group will provide the opportunity for people across Scotland to register their support,” she told The Courier.
“The number of local petition cards which have been returned has been tremendous.”
She continued: “Local residents have been emailing and writing in to my local office to give their support to the campaign and a number have suggested establishing a Facebook campaign group.”
The petition for the rail link has seen around 400 local petition cards, with letters and emails bringing the total number of supporters to nearly 500. The Scottish Conservatives have around 2,000 petition cards to post out to rural homes, which they will be doing over the next week.
A Transport Scotland spokesman said: “A rail link from Edinburgh to Perth via Kinross was considered in the 2008 Strategic Transport Projects Review but, based on the evidence, it did not represent best value for the taxpayer.
“However, Scottish Ministers are always willing to consider rail projects that provide a positive impact and we continue to liaise with Transform Scotland to assist in their development of proposals for a new rail link between Edinburgh and Perth via Kinross.
“The Scottish Government’s £5 billion investment in rail infrastructure and services is addressing decades of neglect and includes £3 billion to support the operation, maintenance and enhancement of our existing network, as well as a series of new projects across Scotland.”
He added that related modelling work identified that there would be only a very limited transfer from road to rail as a result of the construction of a new rail line.