THIS month, Helensburgh has faced difficulty on both the roads and the railway.

The most significant road delays were caused by the closure of the A83 at the Rest and Be Thankful for a total of nine days at the start of the month.

To make matters worse, the Old Military Road was closed at the same time, so road users had to make a 58 mile detour to travel north.

Of course, this is not the first time that people have experienced problems with the A83 and until a permanent solution is found, it won’t be the last time either.

Likewise, the A82 is an important trunk road through the constituency, and it, too, experiences many closures due to accidents.

We rely on these roads as commuters and local businesses so keeping them open is essential. I have written to the Transport Secretary and the First Minister to urge them to invest in our local trunk roads.

Now, let me turn to train services. Our area is blessed with fantastic railway infrastructure with train stations in Cardross, Craigendoran and two stations in Helensburgh, but the service passengers have received in the last month has been consistently poor.

I can’t begin to count the number of times trains are cancelled or delayed, and then when they do arrive it is standing room only as ScotRail haven’t provided enough carriages.

And despite this poor service, prices are being hiked up, and passengers are being asked to pay more for something which they can’t rely on.

Some months ago, I welcomed ScotRail’s commitment to ending stop-skipping, where they regularly missed out stops at Cardross and Craigendoran to enable late-running trains to make up time. Now it looks as if they are not just missing one or two stops along the line but skipping all the stops by cancelling trains completely.

We need to see a better service on the Helensburgh line fast, or travelling by train will become a last resort.