Warm, Safe Trains Now: Fix ScotRail’s West Highland Line
Sign Our Petition Below
Passengers using the West Highland Line have reported travelling in carriages that are freezing, dirty, overcrowded, and poorly maintained. What should be one of Scotland’s proudest rail routes — serving local communities and welcoming visitors to the Highlands — has instead become a source of frustration, discomfort, and growing concern.
Recent reports have highlighted serious safety issues, including passengers becoming unwell after travelling on services where heating was inadequate in sub-zero conditions. These are not isolated complaints about comfort — they raise fundamental questions about passenger safety, dignity, and basic standards on public transport.
ScotRail has acknowledged that the trains used on the West Highland Line are among the oldest in its fleet and are nearing the end of their working life. Yet passengers are being told that meaningful improvements or replacement trains may still be a decade away. That is simply not acceptable.
Government health and safety guidance sets clear expectations for minimum indoor temperatures, yet ScotRail has been unable to clearly state what temperature range it considers acceptable for passengers and staff — or how long carriages may fall below safe levels.
The Highlands already face enough challenges with transport reliability and connectivity. Being expected to travel in freezing conditions is not something people should have to put up with in modern Scotland.
This petition is about drawing a clear line: warm, safe, and reliable trains are not a luxury — they are a basic expectation.
By signing, you are calling on the Scottish Government and ScotRail’s leadership to act now, not in ten years’ time.
Warm, Safe Trains Now: Fix ScotRail’s West Highland Line
I the undersigned call upon Fiona Hyslop MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Transport, and Hannah Ross, Chair of ScotRail, to take urgent action to ensure that all West Highland Line services operate at safe, warm, and dignified temperatures. This must include the immediate enforcement of minimum temperature standards on trains, transparent monitoring and reporting of carriage temperatures, urgent fixes to heating systems, and accelerated investment in refurbishment or replacement rolling stock. No passenger or member of staff should be put at risk, or forced to endure freezing conditions, simply by travelling on Scotland’s railway network.
