Media centre

Thursday 8 Jan 2015

Limited cancellations as rail network prepares for storms

Region & Route:

Scotland’s Railway: Scotland

Due to the severe weather conditions forecast for Friday (January 9) a limited number of train services will be withdrawn from start of service tomorrow as a safety precaution.

No trains are expected to run on the following lines from tomorrow morning until late afternoon:

• Inverness-Kyle/Thurso/Wick/Aberdeen
• Kilwinning-Ardrossan/Largs
• Dumbarton Central-Helensburgh Central
• Glasgow-Oban/Fort William/Mallaig (this includes tonight’s Caledonian Sleeper).

These routes are likely to bear the brunt of the winds of up to 110mph and high tides forecast to hit the north and west of Scotland over the next 48 hours.

For safety reasons it will be necessary to inspect the above rail lines for damage before allowing passengers to travel on these routes.

While this work will be done as quickly as possible it will not commence until after the peak of the storm has passed, at around 06:00-08:00 on Friday morning.

While other lines and services are scheduled to operate normally tomorrow, the extreme conditions may cause damage elsewhere on the network and passengers should allow extra time for their journeys or consider postponing any non-essential travel.

Network Rail will have hundreds of engineers out across the network ready to react quickly to any problems identified on the lines – removing trees and fixing equipment where necessary.

The company will also be monitoring its system of over 120 weather alarms across the network to help track the passage of the storm.

With the strength of the winds expected, railway infrastructure could be damaged as severe winds can blow debris and trees onto tracks and damage equipment such as overhead electric power lines and signals.

David Dickson, Network Rail route managing director for Scotland, said: “Safety has to be our first consideration during severe weather.

“We will be withdrawing a limited number of services until the worst of the storm has passed to allow our engineers to thoroughly inspect the network for any damage.

“We will be monitoring conditions on the ground closely throughout the night and into the morning and will have teams ready to respond to any issues caused by the storm.

“We are working closely with the train operators, and other industry partners, to reduce disruption as much as possible while also operating a safe network for passengers.”

Due to the extreme weather, limited replacement buses are expected to be available.

ScotRail customers with dated tickets to travel anywhere on the ScotRail network on Friday are urged, if at all possible, to use their tickets on services on Thursday (January 8), Saturday (January 10) or later.

For safety reasons, ScotRail has cancelled the Edinburgh to Fort William portion of the northbound Sleeper on Friday morning; and the southbound portion from Fort William to Edinburgh on Friday evening. Affected customers are being offered replacement transport or refunds.