WORKERS and climate campaigners are today demanding more investment into austerity-hit rail services across Scotland as part of the country’s green transition. 

Train drivers’ union Aslef and campaign group Friends of the Earth Scotland urged Edinburgh to launch a “full inquiry into rail services and the wider transport system, with a specific focus on the role they have in helping Scotland grow, transform and meet its climate targets.”

The call, which came in a letter to the net zero, energy and transport committee ahead of its meeting today to consider last year’s nationalisation of ScotRail, follows a warning from both organisations that SNP ministers lack “any plan and vision” for rail services north of the border. 

Aslef Scottish organiser Kevin Lindsay said: “Transport has a critical role in helping Scotland meet its climate targets, grow its economy and achieve a just transition.

“For Scotland to become a greener, cleaner and healthier nation it needs a vision and a plan for our rail services and how we are actually going to help shift people and goods from road to rail.”

Mr Lindsay slammed the Scottish government for not following the examples of the union and the campaign group, which recently produced separate reports outlining their “visions” for public transport. 

“We believe that the Scottish Parliament should now take the lead,” he said. 

“It is of fundamental importance that there is a plan in place that shows clearly how we can shift people and goods from road to rail and the practical steps that must be taken to achieve this.

“Quite frankly, there is no time to lose in pursuing this agenda.”

Friends of the Earth Scotland’s just transition campaigner Rosie Hampton warned that transport was the country’s “biggest source of climate emissions, so we urgently need to change the way we get around.”

She said: “With the right investment to make that happen, we’ll also reap the benefits of significant job creation, a boost to the economy and reduced social isolation.

“There are big disparities in the costs of different kinds of transport — motoring costs have been kept artificially low for years while train tickets are getting more and more expensive.

“This imbalance is taking us in the wrong direction, yet we have not seen any ambition from the Scottish government in plans to tackle this.

“The continued delay does not inspire confidence.”