RAIL users from Cardenden, Lochgelly and Cowdenbeath stations found Saturday a day of frustration.

With a particularly busy day in Edinburgh involving the Festival Fringe, and a rugby international, there were a lot of people wanting to go to the capital.

But a mixture of delays and some cancellations made it a total day of frustration for passengers coming and going to Edinburgh.

And following a weekend of rail 'travel chaos', Mid Scotland and Fife MSP Claire Baker is calling for Abellio, who runs ScotRail, to be stripped of its contract.

A series of cancellations, combined with the final weekend of the Fringe and the Scotland v France rugby match at Murrayfield, saw passengers faced with overcrowded trains and delays on key routes to and from Edinburgh, including the Fife Circle where cancellations and delays had impacted throughout the day.

Claire Baker said: “The additional demands on services related to the rugby at Murrayfield and the final weekend of the Fringe were entirely foreseeable, but ScotRail was unable to plan to meet this, leaving passengers subject to chaos, cancellations and severe overcrowding.

“Rail passengers have endured sub-standard services for far too long, with the weekend’s shambles another shocking example of Abellio’s mismanagement of ScotRail and its inability to adequately plan and deliver the service they are contracted to. The investigation being carried out the ScotRail is the minimum that should be expected, the Scottish Government needs to take action and strip Abellio of its contract.

“Unfortunately for Fife commuters, overcrowding, delays and cancellations are nothing new with passengers too often subject to this when travelling by train. The service being provided is simply not good enough and something must be done. Abellio has repeatedly shown it is unable to deliver.”

ScotRail tweeted on Saturday: "Services from Edinburgh Waverley & Haymarket are extremely busy this evening and will remain so for the rest of tonight. We’ll continue to do all we can to keep customers moving and encourage those travelling between Glasgow and Edinburgh to use all routes available. However, if you can, we’re asking customers to consider alternative transport arrangements for those travelling from Edinburgh city centre."