The Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union has suspended a series of rail strikes.

The industrial action was planned in protest at the possibility of new electric train lines operating without guards.

Following a meeting between representatives from RMT and ScotRail on Wednesday to discuss a fresh offer made by the company, the trade union has decided to suspend its strikes as "significant progress" has been made.

The trade union's general secretary Mick Cash said: "The union has made sufficient progress to enable us to suspend the current programme of industrial action on ScotRail to allow for further detailed discussions on the issue of platform train dispatch procedures.

"Our colleagues from (train drivers' union) Aslef will be involved in those discussions with the company.

"The progress we have been able to make in this dispute is entirely down to the resilience, determination and strength of our ScotRail members who have taken wave after wave of rock-solid action in defence of rail safety. They are a credit to the entire trade union movement."

On Monday, ScotRail requested the RMT "suspend all upcoming strikes and to encourage a return to normal working".

The company's managing director welcomed RMT's decision to accept the request to suspend the strike action.

Phil Verster, managing director of the ScotRail Alliance, said: "I am really pleased for our customers and our people that the RMT have accepted our request to suspend further industrial action. Doing this allows us to get round the table and finalise an agreement that will hopefully bring this dispute to an end.

"Throughout this process we have always maintained that we would keep a second member of staff on board our trains to look after our customers. That is the way we work here in Scotland and there have never been any plans to change that. The question has been about what that second member of staff actually does.

"We have made a very positive proposal that we will now seek agreement on. If it is agreed, it would mean that conductors could concentrate on delivering an even better service to our customers."

The strikes were scheduled to take place throughout August.