Plans to transfer responsibility for policing Scotland’s railways to the national police force is not “the way the railway works,” train drivers’ union Aslef warned yesterday.

The Scottish government announced plans this week to amalgamate the Scottish division of the British Transport Police into Police Scotland.

SNP ministers rejected BTP proposals to continue its control of railway policing but under the oversight of Holyrood rather than Westminster.

Aslef Scottish organiser Kevin Lindsay said: “It is ironic, at best, and outrageous, at worst, that after the Smith Commission devolved powers for the railway to Scotland that the SNP government first sells out ScotRail and then sells out the BTP.

“We don’t want the BTP to be scrapped and its services delivered by Police Scotland. We want, as Labour wants, and as everyone who understands the railway wants, a BTP accountable to Holyrood to police the railway in Scotland.”