THE Scottish Government has been criticised over its plan to scrap part of a planned upgrade on the main Glasgow to Edinburgh rail line.

Labour MSPs claimed a cut of £350 million from the initial £1 billion programme was an example of a failed manifesto commitment and showed the SNP was guilty of, "over promising" before the last election.

MSPs yesterday debated the changes to the scheme, which was initially intended to reduce journey times by 13 minutes between the two cites and increase the number of services from four to six an hour.

However, Transport Minister Keith Brown this summer revealed the final proposals, which included no extra services and a reduced journey time of just eight minutes.

Richard Baker, Labour's infrastructure spokesman said: "Commitment to funding the proposal was in the SNP manifesto.

They can't pass the blame to Westminster.

"The money was coming from Network Rail borrowing and not from the capital budget."

The Conservative infrastructure spokesman, Alex Johnstone, suggested the cut was calculated and said the SNP was "playing games" and was guilty of "raising expectations to capitalise on the disappointment" by blaming cuts from Westminster.