Media centre

Monday 22 Jan 2024

Rail services restarting but more severe weather to affect Tuesday’s trains

Region & Route:

Scotland’s Railway: Scotland

• Work is continuing to reopen lines across the country following 80mph winds on Sunday night
• More disruption to journeys expected on Tuesday as Storm Jocelyn reaches Scotland bringing an early shutdown of the network

Engineers are working hard across Scotland to repair rail infrastructure and restore services following a night of damage caused by Storm Isha.

Passengers are also now being advised that more disruption to journeys is expected over the next 48 hours as Storm Jocelyn arrives.

With winds of up to 65mph to hit Scotland tomorrow night, the decision has been taken to close the network early on Tuesday with a controlled shutdown of services starting from 1900.

Services will also start later on Wednesday as engineers will need to inspect railway lines for damage before trains can run.

Over the course of today, chainsaw teams and specialist overhead line engineers from Network Rail have been working flat out to clear trees and repair damaged power lines on multiple routes.

The following routes have been inspected and reopened for train operators over the course of today:

• East Coast Mainline
• West Coast Mainline
• Aberdeen–Dundee
• Perth–Dundee
• Perth–Stirling
• Dundee–Edinburgh via Kirkaldy
• Edinburgh–Tweedbank
• Edinburgh–North Berwick
• Glasgow Central–Prestwick
• Ardrossan Harbour–Glasgow Central
• Largs–Glasgow Central
• Glasgow Central –Paisley Canal
• Glasgow Central–Barrhead
• Ayr–Prestwick
• Bathgate–Edinburgh.

Engineers are still working to tackle significant issues on various lines where falling trees have damaged the overhead line equipment used to power electric trains, including:

• At Croftfoot in Glasgow
• Between Easterhouse and Garrowhill
• At Gartcosh
• Between Holytown and Bellshill.

At Queen Street station, work is underway to remove a fence that was blown over and is overhanging the railway and teams have also been working to remove a metal shed that was blown on to the line at Bellgrove, a garage roof that was blocking the line at Kirkwood and an advertising board that fell on to the line at the Exhibition Centre in Glasgow.

Liam Sumpter, route director, Network Rail Scotland, said: “Storm Isha has caused a huge amount of damage across Scotland’s Railway. 

“My thanks go to our teams, who’ve been working around-the-clock to remove fallen trees and debris while carrying out both minor and major repairs to damaged infrastructure.

“While we are continuing to re-open routes when it is safe to do so, we unfortunately expect even more disruption in the coming days as Storm Jocelyn arrives in Scotland. 

“If you’re planning on travelling by train this week, please check the status of your journey with your train operator.

“We’re also urging lineside neighbours to make sure that garden furniture and equipment is secure as in high winds, this can blow on to the railway, causing damage and disruption.”

For more information on any changes to services, check www.nationalrail.co.uk or with individual train operators.