Christina McKelvie MSP met with David Simpson, Operations Director of Scotrail, to discuss service across Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse Constituency.

A wide range of issues were discussed, such as skip stopping (The process of late trains missing stations to make up time) and delays around the Larkhall line last year. Christina pushed for reassurances that the issues around reliability last year would be tackled properly going in to 2019.

Mr Simpson highlighted recent improvements that had been seen in recent months around the punctuality of services, noting the positive direction of the service heading into the future.

Commenting, Christina said: “I was happy to see that Scotrail had taken my concerns around the service last year seriously. Not only was there an acknowledgement that things had to get better, they also laid out some of the plans they were putting in place to make this a reality.

“In particular I was heartened to hear that skip stopping has been eliminated except as a last resort and would like to see this eliminated entirely. Alongside this, they are training drivers for use with the new 385 trains and are carrying out work to cut down the time trains spend in the centre of Glasgow. This work has already led to an improvement in the punctuality of services in Hamilton, Larkhall and the surrounding areas.

”While I welcome the improvement the service has seen in previous months I will continue to pay close attention to our rail links and push for further improvements in the future.”