Rail bosses have sparked anger by disrupting the north train service for five Sundays in a row – because of work going on more than 100 miles away.
Commuters and visitors on the Highland Main Line face a bus replacement service due to engineering works taking place in central Scotland.
MSP Rhoda Grant condemned plans by Scotrail to suspend all rail services on the 118-mile Inverness to Perth line for the next five Sundays, as Network Rail engineers conduct electrification works on the Alloa, Stirling and Dunblane lines.
Transport operator Scotrail said the reason for the change was to ensure normal timetables can resume on Monday morning and the first Glasgow train is in the right place to go north.
Despite the works having no direct advantage for Highlanders, passengers heading north are to bear the brunt of the closures; a move Ms Grant believes should have been given additional thought.
She said: “It is unfortunate that rail passengers between Inverness and Perth have to be disrupted when there is actually no work ongoing on the Highland main line. However, I understand from Network Rail that the engineering works affect the Central Belt.
“They tell me if they kept trains running on the Highland Main line and not elsewhere, there would be a knock on effect for services on the Monday mornings with the trains being in the wrong locations.
“However, I wonder with a little thought whether some trains could not have been kept north of the engineering works to provide services from Inverness to Perth because one of the first services on Monday morning leaves from Inverness. I would have through that the Scotrail Alliance could have come up with a better solution, however they are very Central Belt orientated.
“I have long since advocated for better and more punctual train services for the North and this is simply another example of the Scotrail Alliance’s disregard for those in the north.”
Replacement buses are scheduled to run during the works, adding an additional hour onto their original two and a half hour journey. The route is scheduled to re-open as normal from Sunday, December 2.
A ScotRail spokesperson said: “We’re building the best railway that Scotland’s ever had, and that means more seats, faster journeys, and better services.
“While Network Rail carry out the necessary work to make this possible, some trains will be replaced by buses over the next few Sundays.”
ScotRail – not up to scratch
Failure to meet a series of targets has resulted in ScotRail being fined more than £2.2 million in the first half of the year.
A service quality report covering April to June showed the operator met 15 out of 38 targets but fell short in areas including toilets, cleanliness, and litter at stations.
The franchise is fined by Transport Scotland when it breaches performance measures.
Fines of more than £1,061,000 were issued for the three-month period. This followed more than £1,180,000 in penalties between January and March.
Scottish Labour’s transport spokesman Colin Smyth said: “Passengers across Scotland deserve better than this failing ScotRail franchise.
“These fines are not worth the paper they are written on, with privately-run ScotRail funded by the taxpayer through subsidies in the first place.”
Pointing to a fall in fines from the first to the second quarter, David Lister, ScotRail Alliance sustainability and safety assurance director, said: “We know there is a lot of work still to be done but these figures confirm the progress ScotRail is making.”