South Scotland MSP Colin Smyth has accused ScotRail of a “sleight of hand” over claims that a full train timetable would be reinstated to rail services from today (20 July).

About 700 services were cut on 23 May when rail bosses introduced a “temporary timetable”. However, this was on top of a cut of 300 services that were already proposed for May 2022 compared to pre-pandemic timetable.

While the plan is to restore from today most of the 700 services axed two months ago- there are no proposals to return to pre-pandemic levels of service, a move criticised by Colin Smyth.

South Scotland MSP Colin Smyth, “Whilst it’s a step forward that we will see most of the services axed in May restored, it really is a sleight of hand by ScotRail to claim this is a return to a full timetable.

“There will still be hundreds of services from the pre-pandemic timetable that have still not been reinstated and we will have a poorer service than we had just a couple of years ago.

“The service across South Scotland were bad enough before the pandemic, and we should be looking to make improvements not run down our railways which this reduced timetable does.