Significant disruption across Scotland’s rail network has begun as workers at Network Rail take strike action this week.
Workers responsible for train lines and infrastructure across the UK walked out on Tuesday – with further action on Thursday and Saturday – as ScotRail was able to run services on just five routes on these days.
The rail operator will run two trains per hour on the Edinburgh to Glasgow via Falkirk High line, the Edinburgh-Bathgate line, the Glasgow to Hamilton/Larkhall line and the Glasgow to Lanark line.
One train an hour will run on the Edinburgh to Glasgow via Shotts service.
Services on the five lines will only operate between 7.30am and 6.30pm on the dates affected.
Passengers were warned last week by ScotRail to only travel on the limited services “if they really need to”.
Major disruption is expected across the UK as the RMT union takes industrial action over a pay dispute with Network Rail and some Department of Transport rail operating companies.
It is understood that staff at ScotRail will be expected to attend their usual place of work on the days strike action is planned.
The operator said employees will be “deployed for other duties”, including training and staff briefings, where appropriate.
Experts in the retail sector have issued warnings over the potential negative impact the limited services will have on Scotland’s shopper footfall figures, which were down by 16% on pre-pandemic levels in May.
David Lonsdale, director of the Scottish Retail Consortium, said: “Retailers in Scotland’s city centres were clobbered by the exodus of commuters during the pandemic.
“Even now, several months on from the end of restrictions and store visits are still shy of pre-Covid levels, with Scotland rooted to the bottom of the UK league table for shopper footfall last month.
“Many stores are only just beginning to emerge from the long and destabilising impact of the pandemic, and further train disruption could deter shoppers and derail retail’s recovery.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here