AS FURTHER rail disruption plagued West Fife commuters on Tuesday night, the Press went to interview evening commuters at Rosyth station.

After numerous cancellations to services last week, workers weren’t too thrilled to hear that the 1707 on Tuesday night was cancelled.

The reason given was staff shortages.

The next available service to West Fife was the 1717 to Glenrothes but changes were also made to the line as it was diverted from Cardenden, again due to staff shortages.

When reporter Gemma Ryder met the service at Rosyth, the train was already 10 minutes late and was completely packed.

Paul Burt,from Rosyth, told us that he had been crammed into the dreaded “cage” – made for storage – with what he estimated to be 40-50 people and looked dishevelled by his experience.

“I only started commuting three weeks ago and there’s been five cancellations to peak time services,” he said.

“If it doesn’t start improving then I’m going to get angry.

“It’s definitely a health and safety issue and I’m completely confused how ScotRail are not breaking regulations because if you were on any other mode of transport you would be.”

When the Press joined rush hour services two weeks ago, we experienced for ourselves the overcrowded conditions rush-hour commuters are subject to.

Passengers were squashed into spaces like sardines and when we pulled into stations further down the line, the train guard shouted for us to move down into invisible spaces, causing the temperature to be unbearable.

Paul added: “Soon it will be like travelling in India and we’ll be sitting on the top of trains.

“There’s no explanation as to why services are cancelled, staff shortages don’t really explain why a peak time train is cancelled.

“But there’s a simple explanation to this, we need more trains, even another two would do the job.”

When asked about overcrowding on a pervious occasion, ScotRail responded: “Our new trains will usher in a new level of service on Scotland’s railway, transforming rail travel in Scotland by providing more seats and a much-improved on-board environment.

“The introduction of these trains will allow us to make better use of our existing fleet and make positive timetable changes.”