SCOTRAIL'S flagship new Class 385 trains were at the centre of further disruption for travellers during a fourth working day of train cancellations and overcrowded carriages.

At least two Edinburgh to Glasgow services joined dozens more across the country mainly due to a continuing issue with staff shortages which has dogged the train service run by the Dutch firm Abellio.

The previous two days hundreds of passengers were affected by at least five cancellations of Class 385 services between Scotland's two largest cities, due to three separate faults.

Thursday's train cancellations were mainly through continuing staff shortages caused by workers not ready for the implementation of the new winter timetable which was launched on Sunday.  ScotRail say that was caused by the late arrival of the new Hitachi Class 385 and high-speed InterCity trains.

The shortages also led to dozens of existing services having carriages cut - leading in some cases to overcrowding. Passengers took to social media to lodge complaints and post images of what their experiencing across the country.

ScotRail continued to apologise for the disruption saying the reasons for the issues had not changed since they introduced their winter timetable on Sunday.

They also included still facing impacts from the now-resolved pay dispute with the RMT union.

Colin Smyth, the South Scotland MSP has written to the Scottish Government and ScotRail demanding answers to concerns over overcrowded trains on the Borders Railway.

"It is shocking that passengers are being let down so badly," he said. "The very least the Scottish Government and ScotRail can do is freeze fares instead of going ahead with yet more increases in ticket prices in January."

One Borders Railway passenger Becca Alexander had her say in her compaint to ScotRail saying: "You are really letting down your Borders passengers.

The Herald:

"The amount of cancellations of our (peak) services of late has been ridiculous and the only reason we get is that the is no staff available!

"That is not good enough, you need to manage the service better and ensure we get the same level of service as the other lines, particularly when passengers are paying higher peak time rates!

"My morning train has been cancelled twice just this week! And in terms of the afternoon trains, there needs to be more than two carriages for the peak services, particularly when there are cancelled services either side!! Just not good enough!!"

ScotRail repeated its previous apology saying that anyone delayed by 30 minutes or more as a result of a cancellation is entitled compensation through their Delay Repay Guarantee.

ScotRail had said its new electric and high-speed trains including the Class 385 stock would allow shorter journey times, more seats and more services on updated routes to build "the best railway Scotland has ever had".

ScotRail had declared its flagship rail link between Edinburgh and Glasgow would see the fastest time cut to just 42 minutes - although on Monday that related to just one of over 170 services running from Glasgow to Edinburgh.

The train firm ordered 46 three-carriage and 24 four-carriage sets of the 385 trains from manufacturer Hitachi as part of its £475m investment in rolling stock and they were due to all be running in the central belt by early next year.

There are now 31 in service with 19 on the Edinburgh to Glasgow route.

The Herald: