WHILE rail services on the Fife Circle should be improving due to the end of the dispute between RMT and ScotRail MSP Alex Rowley wants people to report any future problems they may experience.

He has been told by the Transport Minister that six carriage trains will run at peak times through rolling stock being moved from the Glasgow to Edinburgh route to the Fife Circle through new much faster stock taking on the challenge of the cities route.

Mid Scotland and Fife MSP Mr Rowley was assured in a response by Transport Minister, Michael Matheson, to a question posed by him in Parliament, on what action was being taken by ScotRail in response to reports of an increase in the scale and frequency of (a) overcrowding and (b) cancellations on the Fife Circle; what work it is carrying out to ensure that the overall customer experience on these services improves, and how it will monitor the effectiveness of this.

Michael Matheson said in a written response: "The member will be aware that the industrial action over rest day working impacted significantly on ScotRail’s recent performance on the Fife Circle, notably the level of cancellations which subsequently impacted on overcrowded services.

"You will be pleased to note a deal to resolve the dispute has been agreed and the work to rule action withdrawn and this will see services impacted by industrial action returning to normal.

"When all the HST trains are in service ScotRail will redeploy some of the existing class 170 trains to Fife and this will mean more peak trains will be formed of six carriages and off peak services will generally be three carriages".

The Minister added: "ScotRail is delivering a programme of performance improvement initiatives, including changes to maintenance regimes for infrastructure and rolling stock on Fife routes,

"ScotRail’s performance and actions being delivered to support performance improvement are challenged, monitored and discussed between Transport Scotland officials and the ScotRail Alliance at regular forums".

Mr Rowley is hoping that improvements will be seen at Cardenden, Lochgelly and Cowdenbeath stations, but concluded: "Interestingly I have had passengers onto me in the last few days stating that the resolve of the work to rule and new timetable is still not making the improvements to services.

"I would urge passengers who are having bad experiences on the trains to continue to report these so we can maintain a focussed campaign for the improvements that rail services for Fife desperately need".