Scotrail pulls plug on electric car charging points over faulty connections
Scotrail has been forced to shut all of its 50 charging points for electric cars after it emerged the services were faulty.
One had accidentally been wired to the wrong electricity supply, leaving track operator Network Rail to pick up the bill.
Emergency repairs to the charging points in car parks across Scotland will take up to six weeks.
The charging point for the Scotrail car park at Pitlochry in Perthshire had been wired to a neighbouring supply belonging to Network Rail.
The mistake had left the track operator to pay for the running expenses.
Scotrail said it had taken its electric vehicle charge points out of service while maintenance was carried out after faults were identified during inspections.
Scottish Labour environment spokeswoman Claudia Beamish said: “It is welcome that Scotrail is looking to encourage the use of electric vehicles but concerning to see so many charge points are offline.
“That will do nothing to encourage people to make the transition to a more environmentally-friendly commute.
“These reports should be urgently investigated.”
Scotrail converted a total of 100 parking spaces in 50 of its 359 stations to electric charging points last year.
Each charging point can supply two cars at a time.
The firm said at the time the move was intended to “reduce our customers’ carbon footprint from door to door”.
But now electric car drivers will have to make alternative arrangements for the next six weeks.
There are estimated to be more than 70,000 pure electric vehicles on UK roads, but there remains a low number of charging parking spaces.
A Scotrail Alliance spokesman said: “We apologise to customers who are currently unable to charge their electric cars while maintenance work is carried out.
“We are working with our contractor to have our charge points back in service as quickly as possible.”