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Saturday 19 Oct 2024

Passengers advised to plan for some disruption as Storm Ashley brings high winds and heavy rain to Scotland

Region & Route:

Scotland’s Railway: Scotland

Strong winds and heavy rain brought by Storm Ashley will disrupt rail services across western and northern parts of Scotland from tomorrow (Sunday 20 October) evening.

The Met Office has issued a yellow weather warning for wind across the whole of Scotland, with an amber weather warning in place in much of the west.

Gusts of up to 80mph are expected to hit western areas with winds of between 55 and 65mph due to blow across other parts of the country.

Trains on the following lines will need to be slowed from tomorrow evening and into Monday morning:

• West Highland Line
• Kyle of Lochalsh - Inverness
• Highland Main Line,
• Kilwinning – Ayr/Largs,
• Stranraer line
• Aberdeen-Dundee

Ahead of the extreme weather Network Rail’s maintenance teams are carrying out additional checks in areas known to be at risk of flooding and will have additional staff on hand throughout the next few days to respond to any weather-related incidents.

Ross Moran, route director, Network Rail Scotland, said: “Storm Ashley will bring high winds and heavy rain that will impact some services in Scotland.

“To keep passengers and colleagues safe, we need to slow trains down on several lines across Scotland from tomorrow evening.

“In the meantime, our engineers are carrying out extra checks on our pumps and in areas known to be at risk from the elements, particularly flooding. We’ll have more staff than normal on duty to remove fallen trees and debris from the track, as well as to tackle flooding.

“Some journeys will take longer than normal and we advise passengers to plan ahead. We will, of course, remove any speed restrictions as soon as it is safe to do so and we thank passengers for their patience.”

Passengers due to travel on Sunday or on Monday morning when the storm has passed should check their journey at nationalrail.co.uk or with their train operator before travelling.