A Lanarkshire MSP has once again urged a U-turn on the plans to ditch the dualling of East Kilbride's rail line.
The call comes as the Tory's Graham Simpson met with rail officials to discuss the electrification of the EK and Barrhead rail line and the project's progress.
Shadow Minister for Transport, Graham Simpson, met with Lee Pounder, overhead line contractor firm SPL Powerlines regional director and David Boyce, head of project communications at Network Rail, who updated him on the ongoing works.
The Central Scotland MSP was also shown a practical demonstration of the process for piling and erecting pylons along the line.
SPL Powerlines confirmed the Barrhead to Glasgow line, which is due to be fully electrified by December 2023, is progressing well.
The team also briefed Mr Simpson on when work is expected to start on the East Kilbride rail line – which was due to be fully electrified and dualled.
However, late last year the Scottish Government announced this will be electrified but no longer dualled in its entirety - with the dual track between EK and Busby scrapped.
This led to a furious backlash from politicians across the political divide - including Mr Simpson - who led a debate in the Scottish Parliament.
Mr Simpson said while he was pleased to see the Barrhead section of the project moving at pace but remains disappointed that the East Kilbride route has been downgraded.
"“It was good to hear that the team at SPL are making good progress with the electrification of the Barrhead line and great to see the work which goes into completing a project like this, " he told Lanarkshire Live.
“This is an exciting development which will help reduce local emission levels but also make the service more reliable for local residents.
“It was also useful to hear about their plans for the East Kilbride leg of the route. I will continue to call on the SNP to rethink their short-sighted decision to scrap dualling the line in its entirety.
“There is still time for the Minister to proceed with the initial plan and provide the town with a future-proof rail network, electrified and dualled all the way to East Kilbride”.
And this month the new leader of South Lanarkshire Council, Councillor Joe Fagan, wrote to Transport Minister, Jenny Gilruth MSP, demanding original plans be reinstated "before its too late".
Previous Minister for Transport, Graeme Dey, said that while dualling the line had been “considered” in the business case development process, the cost was “prohibitive” and did not offer value for money or “represent the best use of scarce public finance resources”.
The Scottish Government say the line will have “greater resilience” through improvements to signalling and the addition of new ‘loops’ at Hairmyres.
A Transport Scotland spokesman said: “The Scottish Government is committed to decarbonising the East Kilbride and Barrhead routes and preparatory work has already been under taken ahead of construction.
“Electrification of routes like East Kilbride and Barrhead demonstrate our aim and our commitment of decarbonising all rail passenger services in Scotland by 2035.”
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