The UK Government must put a proper improvement plan in place to tackle the continuing TransPennine rail issues from Lockerbie Station, according to South Scotland MSP Colin Smyth.

This comes on the back of recent news that the service has continued to deteriorate following the UK Government’s decision to transfer the running of services to an operator of last resort on 28 May.

Colin Smyth said: “This news won’t shock anyone.

“After years and years of terrible service under TransPennine, and utter inaction from the UK Government, passengers at Lockerbie are likely to suffer for some time to come as turning around this shambles won’t be easy.

“We have seen with LNER on the east coast that services do improve when brought under public control but it’s not enough for the Government to hand over the running to a new operator and then walk away.

“I have consistently said they need to have a proper improvement plan to tackle the short term chaos of constant cancellations we are currently seeing but in the medium and long term, increase services from Lockerbie.

“At the heart of that plan we need to see the new operators focus on passengers, not profits the way previous one’s did.

“Just this week I spoke with passengers waiting for trains at Lockerbie from Manchester to be told the train had just been cancelled while it sat at Carlisle, just a few minutes before it was due to arrive at Lockerbie. It’s now a challenge for passengers to get a coffee on the train because more often than not, there is no hot water. If companies can’t even get basic services like that correct, they have little chance of convincing people to use their trains.

“As someone who used TransPennine Express on a weekly basis I’ve seen passengers voting with their cars and abandoning the services at Lockerbie because they have been so bad and they won’t come back until things improve.

“We need to get people back on the train but that will only happen if the UK Government get a grip, put in place a proper improvement plan, that gets our trains running on time – and on some days just getting them running to and from Lockerbie at all would be an improvement.”