Stock answers

Around nine out of ten trains run on time. This is the case across the UK, not just across Scotland. The notion of improvements in rolling stock, times of journeys and more journeys at peak times is without doubt plausible, admirable and, if we are to match standards of many European nations, necessarily ambitious.

Given the massive longterm under-investment in railways across the UK (in common with all transport infrastructure) there is little chance that any of the huge improvements will be immediately evident. The plans for rail in Scotland need time against the backdrop of decades of neglect