New station's charging points remain unusable

Electric vehicle charging points at Scotland's newest railway station are still not working.

Passengers started using Reston in the Borders 10 weeks ago.

The 10 charging points were to be part of a larger push towards net zero emissions across Scotland.

Scottish Conservative MP John Lamont, who represents Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk , has raised passengers' concerns with bosses at Transport Scotland.

The agency has apologised for the delays in connecting the points, and said it was pushing for them to be switched on in coming days.

The £20m station at Reston opened to passengers in May.

Trains had last stopped at the village almost 60 years ago.

Mr Lamont said: “Reston station is a great new addition to the transport network in Berwickshire and I am so happy to see it up and running.

“Sadly, the electric chargers are not working and this is causing problems for locals and users of the station.

“If people perceive the electric charging networks to be poor locally, it also belittles the case for people making the switch to battery powered vehicles.”

The charging points are owned by ScotRail with the supply and hardware provided by BP Pulse.

Transport Scotland said: “While it is ScotRail’s responsibility to ensure a timely resolution with their supplier, Transport Scotland officials are working closely with all parties to ensure the charge points at Reston are available for public use as soon as possible.

“An engineer from BP Pulse will be onsite this week to commission the charge points and connect them to the ChargePlace Scotland network.”