By Lucy Ashton
Dumbarton MSP Jackie Baillie has reacted with fury after ScotRail announced plans to cut operating hours of ticket offices.
The rail operator is consulting on proposals to dramatically slash opening hours at local stations, Alexandria, Balloch, Cardross, Dumbarton Central, Dalreoch and Helensburgh Central.
This move comes after several years of disruption on local routes including station skipping locally, leaving passengers stranded and vulnerable and crammed trains at peak times.
The proposals include dramatic changes to opening times at Alexandria which would operate between 9.15am and 2.45pm on a Saturday as opposed to the current times of 6.30am until 11.30pm, if changes go ahead as planned.
Passengers at Helensburgh Central would see the ticket office hours slashed from 5.55am until midnight to 7am until 7pm on a Saturday under proposals.
Dumbarton Central Station – more SNP cuts in service are destined to arrive here.
Dumbarton constituency MSP Jackie Baillie slammed the plans.
She said: “This is absolutely unacceptable. My constituents deserve better than a second-rate service which they have experienced for a number of years under the SNP’s watch.
“All of this is happening while fares have risen again this month and routes are being drastically cut back.
“ScotRail are representing this as ‘delivering a better level of service to customers’ which is a gross misrepresentation of the truth. These cuts will hit passengers, threaten jobs and compromise station safety which is vitally important to people in my constituency.
“We won’t get people back on trains by cutting rail services to the bone. That is blatantly clear for anyone to see.
“It is now a matter of months until ScotRail comes into public hands – and the SNP-Green government are laying the groundwork by nodding through one round of cuts after another.
“I am appalled at this proposal and I urge the Scottish Government to intervene and ensure these ridiculous plans don’t go ahead.”
Meanwhile, there are reports that he number of crimes reported at West Dunbartonshire train stations has leapt by almost 50 percent.
Across the area 92 offences were reported to British Transport Police (BTP) in the year up to November 2021, with criminal damage and fire-raising, violent or sexual offences and thefts all common.
While the number of passengers dropped significantly during the pandemic, the number of crimes increased from 62 in November 2019 to 92.
Balloch was the second worst hit station in the local authority area, behind Dalmuir, recording seven counts of violent and sexual offences, three of criminal damage/fire-raising, two for drugs, one for theft and one for other crime.
There was almost one crime a week within the Dumbarton constituency, with almost 50 offences committed at or close to train stations.
