Rail service

Following the poor rail service experienced by many over autumn and winter and after writing to the ScotRail Managing Director, Alex Hynes, Cllr. Barratt met with Mr. Hynes along with Council Co-Leaders and Council Officers. The meeting was open and honest and covered rail fares, train capacity, rolling stock condition, station skipping, parking provision and various other important points. There was recognition that the service has not met expectations and that the format of performance reporting does not reflect commuter experience. There is now a commitment to improve on this and steps are being taken to avoid the level of disruption we have seen including a commitment to stop station skipping in all but essential cases, increasing service capacity by 40% with more 6 carriage services, increased investment with a 60% increase in railhead treatment (rail cleaning) in advance of the autumn, investment in woodland maintenance adjacent to tracks and investment in parking provision.  We will be working with council officer and ScotRail to identify and progress projects to improve parking provision for commuters without impacting local residents, particularly those in Inverkeithing.  Cllr. Barratt also raised the need to extend late night services, particularly around the Edinburgh Fringe to better allow Fife to benefit from the economic activity surrounding the festival.

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