Speaking to Holyrood, Mary Grant said that “in our franchise we will support any opportunity to open or expand the network in Scotland, and if there’s an opportunity for us to re-open a railway, or see a new railway station created, that can still be managed within the existing constraints of the network, then that’s good news”.

She added: “What’s really important for us going forward as an industry is that we look at the overall map of Scotland and look at where the hotspots of congestion are, and in ensuring that we are either building any schools, hospitals or housing complexes, that we are then able to link that up on a highly effective and efficient public transport network, and we don’t find ourselves caught in a situation where there are bottlenecks because there isn’t the capability to link up.

“Let’s map out where there’s opportunities for ensuring further capacity to develop, and increased communities, before we find people are thinking, ‘I can’t get anywhere on the public transport network, this doesn’t feel good, it doesn’t feel right’.”

Responding to the comments, a Transport Scotland spokesman said: The Scottish Government has a vision to develop a world-class railway in Scotland within the next 20 years, which maximises the opportunities for economic growth and provides faster and high quality passenger services into major areas of employment, education and leisure. 

“Scottish ministers are currently considering a number of transport interventions under the Strategic Transport Projects Review (STPR) to ensure our road and rail networks will best meet the needs of the economy and communities of Scotland for years to come.  It is expected ministers will make an announcement on the outcome of this review later this year.”

Grant also said that the increase in unregulated fare prices in the New Year – which will be announced soon - would have to take account of the increased costs of fuel and electricity.

While a large proportion of fares, such as season tickets and all off-peak returns season tickets and all off-peak returns, are regulated in the franchise contract to maximum increases of the Retail Prices Index inflation measure, plus 1 per cent, there are some fares that are unregulated, such as off-peak day returns, anytime returns, and advance tickets, and Grant said, “we’re looking at the mix of that”.

She said: “The regulated fares are what they are, and the rest of our fares, we’re looking at a combination of where we can actually introduce further opportunities of value advance [fares], and we were the first operator to bring in kids go free, off peak, all the time.

“Clearly, we’re having to juggle the whole basket, because you cannot forget that where  there have been some increasing costs for the customers, at the fuel pumps, or some increases in utility – and two-thirds of our trains are electric – those costs come to us also, so we’re trying to ensure we’ve got a reasonable basket of fares, and they will be announced in due course.”