Jackie Baillie MSP has called on the Scottish Government to take action over disruption to rail services across Scotland. The MSP has highlighted almost a month of constant disruption on rail lines to and from Dumbarton, Balloch and Helensburgh as recent cancellation rates are branded the worst on record.

Delays and cancellations have been ongoing for several weeks but have escalated following the replacement of Bonhill Bridge, which heralded nine days of constant disruption between Saturday 20 October and Monday 29 October. The delays and cancellations have continued since then with commuters complaining of not being able to get to work, university and college, and hospital appointments.

New performance targets show that almost 4 per cent of Scotrail services were cancelled between September 16 and October 13 in 2018 – more than three times the rate of cancellations for the same period in the first two years of the franchise. Certainly the experience in our local area suggests the problem got worse and the only consistent thing about ScotRail were the number of cancellations.

Jackie said:

“Passengers in Dumbarton, Balloch and Helensburgh have been subject to constant delays and cancellations at the hands of ScotRail. My constituents have missed work, college and university and some have even missed hospital appointments.

“Regular commuters are worried that this disruption will have an impact on their employment.

“While there are issues with Network Rail as well as ScotRail, there is no excuse for the unprecedented level of disruption which is fast becoming the norm. There is not a day goes by that the service is not delayed or cancelled completely and all this whilst prices continue to go up. Local commuters deserve much better than this.

“I have started a petition which calls on the Scottish Government to work with Scotrail to get our rail services back on track.”