ScotRail bosses have pledged to “deliver the best railway Scotland has ever had” despite further criticism for cancelled and overcrowded services.
The company defended its record after Green MSP Mark Ruskell called for a full review of Fife Circle services and Scottish Labour highlighted poor performance figures.
Mr Ruskell said Fife had been left behind, with promised extra carriages not expected to arrive in the region until next year and no extra peak time or evening trains for the busy Fife Circle.
A ScotRail Alliance spokesperson said: “Everyone at the ScotRail Alliance is working flat out to deliver the best railway Scotland has ever had, and we’re confident that we will do that.
“We are doing everything we can to deliver the more punctual service that our customers deserve.”
ScotRail said travellers would benefit when class 170 Turbostar trains are allocated to Fife and Borders routes following the introduction of electric trains in the central belt.
“Next year, we will begin to redeploy our existing class 170 trains to Fife. These trains will add more than 5,000 extra seats each day,” said the spokesperson.
The pledge follows a weekend of widespread cancellations blamed on staff training and an ongoing dispute with the RMT transport union about rest day payments.
Mr Ruskell criticised ScotRail over its lack of public consultation before it introduced a new timetable on Sunday.
“It’s clear that we need a full review of services on the Fife Circle and a commitment as to when the extra rolling stock will be in place to help ease the overcrowding passengers have to put up with every day,” he said.
“This national review of the railway timetable has been several years in the planning, but at no point did Scotrail actually consult with their own customers.
“If they had, they would have heard tales of constant overcrowding, long waits at stations, and nights out being cut short due to the lack of late night trains in Fife.”
A Transport Scotland spokeswoman said it had been made clear to ScotRail that it had to improve, including in the Fife region.
“Many delays are due to infrastructure issues which are the responsibility Network Rail, which remains the responsibility of the UK Government,” she added.
“Devolution of Network Rail’s activities to Scotland would allow us to take further action to improve services.”
Scottish Labour highlighted figures from the second quarter of this year which showed ScotRail services were less punctual and less reliable than they had been in more than a decade.
The party’s transport spokesman Colin Smyth MSP said: “These results reaffirm yet again how badly ScotRail is failing Scotland’s rail users with a performance continuing to plummet. That is unacceptable.”
