Ministers hatched a secret plan to dramatically scale back the biggest rail investment programme in a generation and approved cuts to major infrastructure projects – despite being warned this would severely damage the overall benefits of the scheme.

Sensitivity about the £1 billion Edinburgh Glasgow Improvement Programme (EGIP) persuaded the Scottish Government to commission a consultancy to privately advise on how "substantial" savings could be achieved – while keeping the main players, Network Rail and ScotRail, in the dark, the Sunday Herald has learned.

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