ScotRail’s full timetable will be reintroduced from Monday, the operator has announced, after drivers accepted the latest pay deal.

A temporary timetable had been in place since July after drivers refused to work overtime or rest days, as is their contractual right, amid the pay dispute.

The service has relied on extra work, including overtime and working on rest days, from its staff due to a shortage of drivers.

From Monday, October 7, services will return to normal.

Around 26% of services were axed during the summer overall while up to half of trains were cancelled on Sundays during the pay dispute.

Unions involved in negotiations accepted the latest offer last week, understood to be a 4.5% pay rise for all staff backdated to April.

ScotRail said it would recruit 160 new drivers to reduce its reliance on overtime work.

The announcement follows the reintroduction of peak-time fares on Friday after they were shelved in October 2023. 

A peak-time return ticket from Gourock to Glasgow Central, which cost £9.50 last week, is now £15 - an increase of 58 per cent.

For workers travelling from Greenock to Glasgow at peak times, fares will increase from £8.80 to £13.50 - an hike of 53 per cent. 

READ MORE: ScotRail peak fares to be reintroduced as trial concludes

Green MSP Ross Greer said the return of peak fares will cost workers and families in Inverclyde 'a fortune at a time when a lot of people are really struggling'. 

Mr Greer added: "Some people in Inverclyde will have saved hundreds of pounds thanks to the Greens since last October.

"Changing the way we travel doesn’t happen overnight and by permanently making rail travel cheaper, we could have encouraged more people onto the trains.

"I urge the Scottish Government to reconsider this decision and to make cheaper fares a permanent feature of our rail network."

First Minister John Swinney previously defended the reintroduction of peak rail fares in Scotland.

“We’ve got to put in place a rail network that is financially sustainable,” he said.

“We’ve given the peak fares pilot a lot more time than we originally planned, we promised to do it for six months, we actually did it for 12 months, to give it as much opportunity to demonstrate its value.

“Unfortunately, it did not deliver the sufficient shift in passenger number to justify the cost involved and the Government has got to live within its means.”