THERE was chaos on Scotland’s railways yesterday after a perfect storm of points failures and resulting staff and carriage shortages disrupted the journeys of thousands of passengers.
Signals failed between Haymarket and Edinburgh Waverley in what would normally be rush hour. The cold weather the night before had also knocked out rail points at Rutherglen, near Glasgow.
The company had hoped to have everything sorted by 10am, but by half past still no trains were allowed to leave or enter the capital.
The knock-on effect saw trains being cancelled and delayed all over the country.
On many services travellers were squeezed on to fewer carriages than would normally be expected on such a relatively busy day, as the firm tried to manoeuver what stock was available in a bid to try to keep some form of schedule
The 11.42 Aberdeen to Glasgow train left the north-east rammed, as the usual three-carriage train was reduced by a third.
Commuters in Dundee, Perth and Stirling tried their best to find a gap and jam themselves on rather than wait two more hours for the next train.
That train arrived 27 minutes late, just three minutes short of the special half-hour cut-off that would have allowed the squashed Aberdonians to claim compensation.
A ScotRail Alliance spokesman told The National: “Due to multiple points failures caused by very low temperatures, a number of services to and from Edinburgh were disrupted. Services are returning to normal now. We know how frustrating this is for our customers, and we apologise for the impact this has on their day.
“We encourage customers to check @ScotRail, download our app or visit journeycheck.com/scotrail for the most up-to-date information.
“Customers delayed by 30 minutes or more are entitled to compensation, and can claim this by visiting our website.”
Passengers weren’t best pleased with the service, taking to social media to vent their frustration. @12Christianna tweeted: “Looks like Scotrail should’ve asked Santa for a new signalling system for Christmas”
The National’s Lesley Riddoch, still recovering from a hip replacement, managed to find some positives: “Two wee rays of sunshine in today’s train mayhem. Discovered I can stand for an hour without any pain post op & guy on Dundee train offered me his seat as soon as he saw the stick. Almost hame”
Yesterday afternoon, the Met Office issued a snow warning, with parts of southern Scotland expected to be hit with 2-5cm of snow on Friday,
An ice alert was also issued, with icy patches expected to develop on untreated surfaces.
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