A politician has urged the Transport Secretary to intervene after ScotRail admitted their Fife services are "simply not good enough."

Fife MSP Alex Rowley has called for an action plan to be put in place to fix the declining standard of services in the area.

The MSP wrote to Joanne Maguire, managing director of ScotRail, in August to raise his concerns about the "unacceptable emergency timetable," delays, cancellations, and short-form trains.

Mr Rowley said these issues "combined are driving people away from using rail services as they cannot rely on what can only be described as a substandard offering from a national operator."

In response to Mr Rowley's letter, ScotRail admitted that "the service we have been providing for customers in Fife simply has not been good enough" and they are "working hard to rectify this" to ensure that "we can deliver a level of service to customers in Fife which matches what we deliver elsewhere in the country."

ScotRail also said that despite implementing a reduced timetable as "a means of providing greater certainty for our customers at a time when we are experiencing a shortage of train drivers as a result of a dispute over pay," they were "still experiencing some ad hoc complications which result in short notice cancellations."

This prompted Mr Rowley to write to the Transport Secretary, Fiona Hyslop MSP, to ask for her direct intervention.

He wrote: "I cannot understand why people are being expected to pack in like sardines or are left at the station when they simply cannot get on [peak time rail services]."

He also wrote: "As I am sure you can imagine, your announcement that you are reintroducing peak fares has simply added insult to injury with rail users asking why on earth should they pay more for such a poor level of service."

Mr Rowley called for an action plan to be put in place "to quickly get the level of service up to an acceptable standard."

Mr Rowley said: "I have given credit where it is due to ScotRail in the past but after short-lived improvements, unfortunately, standards have once again severely declined.

"I am inundated with messages from constituents who are having to cram onto overcrowded services or simply cannot get on the train, and those affected by delays and cancellations.

"As a rail user myself, I do also experience this overcrowding which is simply unacceptable – as one constituent put it to me, is it acceptable that she is forced to be cramped up against strangers, putting her in a very uncomfortable position?

"While I am glad that ScotRail are admitting the issues they have created, I don’t have much confidence in their abilities to get a grip on this situation which is totally out of hand and will only drive people away from trains and back to car use.

"This is why I have asked the Transport Secretary to directly intervene in finding solutions to the issues plaguing Fife rail services and take full advantage of having control over Scotland’s nationalised rail operator."