MISTAKES made by ScotRail in regards to ticket office opening hours at Lockerbie Station have been raised in the Scottish Parliament.
South Scotland MSP Colin Smyth highlighted his concerns about the repeated errors made by the rail firm on the correct operating hours.
Speaking to Transport Secretary Fiona Hyslop, Mr Smyth said: “In its proposals for Lockerbie station, ScotRail makes the same mistake as it did last time in getting the current opening times of the station wrong.
“I highlighted that to it at the time, as I did in the chamber to the cabinet secretary’s predecessor. ScotRail also proposes new opening times that make it impossible for staff to sell tickets in time for two of the busiest trains of the day, for the sake of ten minutes.
“The proposed new times would also mean that staff would not be there to dispatch some Avanti West Coast services from the station—which, I presume, is a contractual arrangement.”
He challenged Ms Hyslop on her statement that she’s content with new proposals to alter opening hours, adding: “Is she really content that ScotRail is misleading the public over the current opening times, and is she content that it has not clearly thought through the proposals for Lockerbie station?”
The MSP also revealed that ScotRail has written to say the error has been amended.
But he added: “It is really quite ridiculous that it took me raising these issues in the Scottish Parliament for ScotRail to realise it had, yet again, made mistakes in the Lockerbie Station ticket office opening hours.
“It is shocking that in proposing the changes, ScotRail didn’t even seem to know existing ticket office opening times of its own station and what hours their own staff work. All they had to do was check their own website for the correct hours.”
