SMITH WELCOMES GOVERNMENT U-TURN ON NE FIFE RAIL GAPS

9.00.00pm GMT Wed 18th Mar 2009

Local MSP for North East Fife Iain Smith has welcomed the news from the Scottish Government that they will plug most of North East Fife's rail gaps when the summer timetable is introduced on the 17th May this year.

As a result of a sustained campaign by Iain Smith following the timetable changes last December the summer timetable will now have a number of morning services to cover North East Fife which were previously dropped. These include:

· A new service departing 07.00 from Edinburgh to Dundee, calling at Haymarket, Inverkeithing, Kirkcaldy, Markinch, Ladybank, Cupar and Leuchars, arriving at Dundee at 08.23.

· A new 08.28 service from Dundee to Edinburgh, calling at Leuchars, Cupar, Ladybank, Markinch and Kirkcaldy, plugging a gap in the Edinburgh-bound direction at Fife stations.

Commenting on this news Iain Smith said:

"This is without doubt good news for North East Fife's rail users, many of whom commute daily to Dundee, Markinch, Kirkcaldy and Edinburgh. A significant number of my constituents here in North East Fife, many of whom contacted me, are loyal users of the railway and suffered real difficulties with their commuting travel plans when the December timetable was introduced.

"This is quite clearly a victory for passenger-power and a welcome example of a transport provider listening to its users and correcting the problem. It was blunder on the government's part to create this gap at such a crucial time of day in the first place."

ENDS