14.01.15
ScotRail cancels some services ahead of severe weather
ScotRail has cancelled a ‘limited’ number of services today as the country prepares to cope with another bout of extreme weather.
The Met Office has issued yellow ‘be aware’ warnings of snow, ice and wind across the whole of the UK, but Scotland is expected to be the worst affected area.
In advance of potential problems and for safety, services that are expected to be the worst hit have been cancelled.
Network Rail stated that from noon today until 6pm on Thursday 15 January, no trains will run on the following lines:
- Kyle-Dingwall
- Kilwinning-Ardrossan/Largs
- Dumbarton Central-Helensburgh Central
- Glasgow-Oban/Fort William/Mallaig
David Dickson, Network Rail route managing director for Scotland, said that safety has to be the company’s first consideration during severe weather.
He added: “Where conditions are predicted to be most severe, we have agreed to withdraw a limited number of services until the worst of the storms have passed.
“During periods of snow and extreme cold we use a number of measures to keep the network open including insulated points heaters to prevent freezing, snow ploughs to remove drifts and our snow train which uses hot air blowers and steam to thaw frozen parts of the network.”
Network Rail noted that hundreds of staff will be working over the course of the storm to keep lines open and repair damage caused by the weather as quickly as possible. It added that its fleet of snow ploughs and snow clearing trains are also ready to deploy to clear routes for passengers.
Early this morning, however, ScotRail tweeted that one of Network Rail’s snow clearing trains – clearing the line between Inverness and Perth – had broken down. Since then the train has been moved, but Network Rail closed the line due to the “poor conditions”.
A spokeswoman for ScotRail said: “We have made the difficult decision to cancel some services that we know will be worst affected. As with any severe weather, we advise customers to use our website or our app to check their journey before setting off as situations may quickly change.”
(Image: c. Network Rail Scotland - Perth Line)
Tell us what you think – have your say below or email [email protected]