A west Fife councillor says he is asking ScotRail to “come clean” regarding an incident on one of its trains.
Mark Hood, of the Lochgelly and Cardenden ward, is asking for a full investigation following what he claims was a tragedy in the making.
He criticised ScotRail last week after he claimed a carriage filled with smoke at Dalmeny station on a 6.14am Perth to Edinburgh journey on December 21. He said passengers contacted him after stating they were forced to evacuate the train.
ScotRail has not said passenger safety was not compromised or that staff ensured passengers who had left the train were in a safe position.
Mr Hood said the train left Lochgelly at around 7.50am and was close to overcrowding at the time. ScotRail has denied this, said there was no fire on the train, and that the problem was caused by a radiator hose being struck by ice and damaged.
However, Mr Hood questions the accuracy of the official ScotRail account after comments made by ScotRail staff online.
On www.scot-rail.co.uk, which describes its self as “Scotland’s online rail enthusiast community,” staff discuss the incident in some detail.
Mr Hood said, “One of the contributors gave an account of what happened after smoke filled one of the carriages…a fair number of passengers operated emergency egress handles and exited the train, only to find an approaching northbound class 1 train bearing down on them.
“The driver of this train described ’20 or 30 passengers in my four foot when I came round the bend.’
“This man continued, ‘Luckily the driver of the oncoming train managed to slow enough and sounded the horn, eventually coming to a stand at Dalmeny station, so these passengers were able to avoid being struck but it was a very near thing.'”
ScotRail has confirmed an investigation is under way but stressed that no evacuation order was given to passengers at Dalmeny station.
Photo by Flickr user Chris Fleming.