Railway passengers at Wemyss Bay and Inverkip will see the introduction of trained Rail Pastors to provide a caring and helping presence on board the trains.

The new initiative has been developed by the Street Pastor organisation and British Transport Police, and will be introduced on some of Inverclyde’s trains.

Alistair McAlees the Co-ordinator of Inverclyde Street Pastors said, ‘Rail pastors is a fairly recently introduced initiative across the UK and already operates in Scotland in Fife. There is a desire amongst our Street Pastors here in Inverclyde to offer this service locally and we are aware of some difficulties on one of the train routes where we hope we particularly might be of some value. Our colleagues in Paisley are also introducing Rail pastors and we have been jointly undergoing the additional training needed for the role and hope to be operating within a few weeks from now.

‘Rail pastors have a separate uniform to Street Pastors which will make us very identifiable on the trains, and we hope that those travelling will engage with us as part of their journeys. We are a separate organisation, not linked to any other and our motto remains as ‘caring, listening, helping’ with links to other agencies travellers might find helpful.

‘We hope that our rail pastors will be a reassuring presence to passengers and they are also ready to help any needy or vulnerable passengers on the station platforms.’

More information is available from Alistair on 07740 201 853 or by email to inverclyde@streetpastors.org.uk