Central Scotland MSP Graham Simpson is taking the fight to dual East Kilbride's railway line to the Scottish Parliament.
Mr Simpson has tabled a motion branding the announcement last week that the line to the town will remain single track - with the money spent elsewhere - as "short-sighted".
He is calling for the town's MSP and all councillors to back the fight to reinstate the plans and will be seeking urgent talks with the Transport Minister.
Commenting the Central Scotland Conservative MSP said: "There was a long, hard, cross-party struggle to get agreement to electrify the line and dual it so that we can have more and better services.
"That has been torn up in a shady, behind-closed-doors manner which is unacceptable.
"I will be speaking directly to the Transport Minister about this but we need everyone to pull together on this to get this decision reversed.
"I worked with Linda Fabiani on this previously and we now need Collette Stevenson to condemn this move.
"Every councillor in the town should be against it too but we need them to say so.
"I have submitted a motion to the parliament so that this can be debated but it needs cross-party support in order for that to happen."
Notes:
The motion details can be found below.
Motion Number: S6M-01675
Lodged By: Graham Simpson
Date Lodged: 13/10/2021
To be considered for Members’ business
Title: East Kilbride Rail Line Dualling
Motion Text:
That the Parliament notes the announcement by Transport Scotland that the single track part of the rail line between East Kilbride and Glasgow is not now going to be dualled as, it understands, had previously been promised, and that the money will be spent elsewhere; sees this is an opportunity to persuade more people to travel by train missed; notes the view that improving public transport connections is vital if Scotland is to achieve a shift away from cars, and further notes calls on the Scottish Government to reconsider what it considers to be this short-sighted move.
