Ferry Link Hopes Staying Afloat

Over the last few months I have met with the Scottish Transport Minister Michael Matheson, Secretary of State for Scotland David Mundell, Scottish Connectivity Minister Paul Wheelhouse and port authorities in Rosyth to discuss the possibility of reinstating a passenger and freight service between Rosyth and mainland Europe.

Everyone I have spoken to thus far has been extremely positive about this route being viable. I have been contacted by Scots up and down the country through my social media accounts, telling me how much they valued the service.

As the threat of Brexit is on everyone's mind, we here in Scotland need to make sure that our businesses are not going to be affected by long queues on the south coast of England. That is why I am fighting to reinstate the Rosyth Ferry link to the continent as soon as possible.

Fife Circle Needs Straightened Out

The Fife Circle line has been hit with major train delays, cancellations and overcrowding over the last few months. The issues have been mainly caused by a late delivery of the new, Hitachi class 385 electric trains, which staff members are being trained to operate, which has then caused staff shortages around the country. Earlier this month I met with the Managing Director of ScotRail, Alex Hynes, to discuss these problems and there are a number of steps being taken that in time will help straighten out the Fife Circle once and for all. What is clear, and what ScotRail accepts, is that the level of performance is not up to the standard we expect of rail services in Scotland. The message to Mr Hynes is ScotRail has a way to go to deliver improvements but let's work together to see these improvements for every passenger, on every journey in Fife. The pressure is on!

Yemen Concerns Continue

This week I have met with a range of charities, such as Oxfam, Save the Children and Islamic Relief to see how we can achieve a peaceful solution to war-torn Yemen. The UN Peace Envoy, Martin Griffiths, has been doing sterling work on the peace process but more and faster progress must be made to help those who are suffering the worst kind of humanitarian tragedy you can imagine. While the situation in Yemen is largely man-made, the disaster that has befallen Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe has been due to a cyclone which has had devastating impact on people there. To help both contact www.dec.org.uk to give what you can afford. Thank you'