FIFE will no longer be served by CrossCountry Trains as the company cuts its services.
The company has services that call as far north as Aberdeen and as far south as Penzance in England, and has stops at six stations in Fife – Leuchars, Cupar, Ladybank, Markinch, Kirkcaldy and Inverkeithing – listed on their route maps.
However, with the new timetable that came into effect on May 15, their trains no longer stop anywhere in Fife, cutting off the Kingdom from their services.
Inverkeithing and Dalgety Bay councillor David Barratt said: "Fife is not some irrelevant backwater that can be cut from the network without a fight and we need to challenge this decision robustly.
"From my West Fife perspective, removing Inverkeithing as a stop is nothing short of daft. It is a busy station used as a transport hub by many.
"If CrossCountry Trains think cutting Inverkeithing is the solution, I'd love to know what the problem is. Their proposal breaks several of their own customer pledges and will harm them in the long term."
Due to this change in route, those looking to board a CrossCountry train would first have to travel as far as Edinburgh or Dundee, adding significant time on to their journeys.
While inconvenient, CrossCountry have said that decisions are still to be made for December 2022 and onwards.
A CrossCountry spokesperson said: “We constantly monitor customer demand for our services and develop our timetable to reflect this, carefully balancing this with the resources available to us. Final decisions for December ’22 and beyond are still to be made.
"However, we continue to work with Transport Scotland and industry partners to ensure we offer the best service possible while reflecting the change in consumer habits as a result of the pandemic.”
