RAIL bosses insist things are back on track - despite over 500 cancellations of trains through Greenock last year.

ScotRail has come under fire for its service record on the Inverclyde lines during 2019, which also included nearly 200 part-cancellations and almost 1,400 instances of a delay of more than five minutes.

The transport operator has improved its performance significantly in all three areas over the last 12 months but west of Scotland Green MSP Ross Greer says it is still not good enough.

Mr Greer, who obtained the figures, said: "The huge number of cancellations and delays on the Gourock and Wemyss Bay rail route is totally unacceptable. These figures show the need for significant investment in our railways.

"After decades of cuts and under-investment, our rail network is barely coping and it is passengers and the planet suffering because of it. "The Scottish Government claims to recognise the urgency of the climate emergency but is continuing to spend billions on unneeded motorway expansion projects when even a fraction of that money spent on our railways instead would lead to huge improvements. "We deserve the kind of quality public transport that almost all of our European neighbours have."

During 2019, there were 516 full cancellations of trains that were due to pass through Greenock.

That figure is down 126 on the 642 like-for-like services that were axed in the previous 12 months.

Part-cancellations - when a train either misses the first or last station on the route - also fell by 55 to 186 during the same period.

Last year, there were 1,365 instances when a train was more than five minutes late at a destination but that figure is also down by 624 compared with 2018.

ScotRail says the number of trains running on time across Scotland has reached its highest level since June 2018, which it attributes to huge investment on infrastructure and £475 million spent renewing and upgrading the fleet.

Alex Hynes, the company's managing director, said: "Everyone across Scotland's railway is working tirelessly to give our customers the service they expect and deserve, and it is fantastic to see such an encouraging period of performance during a challenging time of year.

"The unprecedented investment in Scotland's railway, including £475 million on new and upgraded trains, is really having a significant impact and we look forward to delivering an increasingly reliable service in the weeks and months ahead."

The operator stressed that there 114 services on the Gourock-Glasgow Central line on a typical day, which is more than 40,000 in a 12-month period.

A further 38 trains run between Wemyss Bay and the city centre daily - or over 13,000 a year.

According to the latest figures - from December 8 to January 4 - 95.6 per cent of trains arriving at Gourock met performance targets.