SCOTLAND’S Culture Secretary has accused the BBC of “totally misleading” audiences with its presentation of a story on UK rail travel.
Angus Robertson hit out after the broadcaster put an image of Edinburgh Waverley on an article about the UK train stations with the worst cancellation rates.
The image of the central Edinburgh station was used above the headline “Britain's worst major train stations for cancellations”.
However, despite the implication, not one Scottish train station was above the UK average of 3.3%, the only region or nation where this was true.
Overall, Scotland had a cancellation rate of 2%, which was 39% lower than the UK average.
England and Wales, meanwhile, had rates of 3.5% and 3.9% respectively, both above the UK average.
The BBC figures further show that the worst train station in Scotland for cancellations was Glasgow’s Exhibition centre, with a rate of 2.8%. The 10th worst, Paisley, had a cancellation rate of just 0.7%.
Edinburgh Waverley and Haymarket both had 2% cancellation rates.
Sharing the BBC’s headline about the “worst” stations alongside an image of Waverley, Robertson called for it to be corrected.
Scotland has the lowest percentages of train cancellations in GB and Edinburgh has amongst the lowest percentages of any major city. How on earth can @BBCNews be presenting these FACTS online with the image below? It's totally misleading, false and must be corrected immediately. pic.twitter.com/LVTCum9X57
— Angus Robertson (@AngusRobertson) September 23, 2025
“Scotland has the lowest percentages of train cancellations in GB and Edinburgh has amongst the lowest percentages of any major city,” the Culture Secretary wrote.
“How on earth can @BBCNews be presenting these FACTS online with the image below?
“It's totally misleading, false and must be corrected immediately.”
Other social media users also noticed the story presentation, with Transport Secretary Fiona Hyslop writing: "BBC Scotland headline with picture of Edinburgh Waverley could have been 'Scotland has lowest % of train cancellations in UK'.
"Not difficult but perhaps explains why BBC Scotland’s own viewing and trust performance figures are one of the worst in the BBC across the UK."
After this story was published, the broadcaster changed the image to one of Waverley's departures board.
Responding, Robertson said: "The BBC has now changed its misleading and false reporting.
"I look forward to reading their justification for using an Edinburgh Waverley sign for more than 11 hours, and note they have replaced it with an image of the Edinburgh Waverley departure board."
The BBC story on its UK site uses an image of City Thameslink in London, which the broadcaster’s figures reported was the worst in the UK for cancellations at a rate of around one in 13 (7.7%).
ScotRail services were nationalised by the SNP Government in April 2022, with peak fares being abolished earlier this month .
A BBC spokesperson said: “We spotted the issue and updated the photo as soon as we could.”
