MSP to quiz railway bosses about Lanark service

The Gazette previously reported how ongoing delays and cancellations on the line since Abellio took over the ScotRail franchise in the spring had prompted Clydesale’s SNP MSP Aileen Campbell to ask for a meeting with company bosses to discuss constituent’s concerns. That meeting is due to take place this week.

Now her Labour counterpart, Lanark-based South of Scotland MSP Claudia Beamish, is to meet a senior member of Abellio management next Monday, again to discuss complaints from the travelling public.

In the meantime, a veteran Clydesdale rail campaigner, Ralph Barker, now a Labour South Lanarkshire councillor, has called for the formation of a new pressure group to represent local travellers.

He said that the former Clyesdale Rail Action Group, with which he was involved for three decades, had recently been formally wound up and now was the time to create a new organisation, a `Rail User Group’ of some sort, to 
represent the area’s train travellers.

The new group might not just concentrate on existing services but also, like CRAG did, push for additional ones, such as rhe restoration of direct Lanark-Edinburgh trains after a 50 year break.