Media centre

Tuesday 3 Nov 2009

PASSENGER UPDATE: FLOODING ON NORTH EAST AND HIGHLAND ROUTES

Region & Route:

Scotland’s Railway: Scotland

Network Rail engineers are continuing to work to restore full train services in the North East and Highlands after severe flooding around Montrose and Elgin.

Services between Dundee and Aberdeen continue to be affected by significant flooding which has caused 2,000tns of material supporting the track-bed to wash away at a point two miles north of Montrose.

Engineers are on-site and working to replace the lost material, but the line will remain closed until Friday morning (November 6) at which time a limited service is expected to resume.

ScotRail services from Glasgow Queen Street and Edinburgh to Aberdeen are now terminating/starting at Montrose.   National Express East Coast and Cross Country services are terminating at Dundee. Replacement bus services between Dundee and Aberdeen, and between Montrose and Aberdeen, are in operation to transport passengers around the affected area.

On the route between Inverness and Aberdeen, train services are running between Aberdeen and Huntly and between Inverness and Forres, but there are no trains between Huntly and Forres due to severe flooding around the Lossie Viaduct area and between Keith and Elgin.

This section of line is also likely to remain closed until Friday. ScotRail is running buses between Huntly and Forres calling at all stops.

David Simpson, Network Rail’s route director for Scotland, said: "Flooding has caused significant damage to our infrastructure and our engineers are on-site at locations across the North East and Highlands working to restore services in what are very demanding conditions.

“Every effort is being made to restore full services as soon as possible and we are working with train operators to provide limited train services or replacement buses where necessary.”

Travel information and service updates are also available from National Rail Enquiries on 08457 48 49 50, or at www.nationalrail.co.uk/