Leisure travel rather than commuting will be the focus of 150 new services on ScotRail's timetable.
ScotRail, which covers all passenger services in Scotland except those run by other operators which cross the border, will then be brought under Scottish government control.
The rail operator has defended its decision to review services, saying revenue has been slashed since March 2020 while costs have stayed the same.Mr Simpson said: "The service is only being used by about 50% of the number of customers who used it before the pandemic. "There is absolutely plenty of space on the current service levels to cope with the commuter and leisure demand.
"We are monitoring that on a daily basis and if there is any need to lengthen trains or put more services on, we will do so. But so far there has been no evidence of that."What are doing is focusing services on the middle of the day and at the weekends, where the evidence is showing that people really want to travel."ScotRail said it had not had to lay off a single member of staff and wanted to work with trade unions "to provide a safe and reliable railway".