SIGNIFICANT disruption is expected across Scotland’s rail network this week as a result of strike action.
Members of the RMT union who work for Network Rail announced they will walk out on Thursday and Saturday this week over a pay dispute.
While the dispute does not specifically involve ScotRail – the publicly-owned train operator – signallers will be among those striking, which will have a knock-on effect that will see most services cancelled.
Previous strike action by the union meant only 189 services could go ahead, but that figure will increase to 378 during this round as trains are set to reach Fife and the east coast.
There will be two trains per hour between Edinburgh and Glasgow Queen Street, Edinburgh and Helensburgh Central, Glasgow Central and Hamilton, Glasgow Central and Lanark, and Glasgow Queen Street and Falkirk Grahamston.
The services will run between 7.30am and the final train will leave “well before” 6.30pm, the operator has said.
ScotRail also stressed that people should only travel if absolutely necessary.
Their service delivery director David Simpson said: “It is very unfortunate to see such widespread disruption across the whole of the Great Britain rail network and we know this will be frustrating for ScotRail customers.
“Regrettably, this strike action by RMT members of Network Rail means that we will not be able to operate the vast majority of our services during the period of strike action.
“Customers should expect significant disruption to services on strike days, as well as the following day.
“We are able to operate on more routes than on the previous day of strike action, however, we are still only able to run a very limited number of services on these routes, so we’re advising customers to seek alternative means of transport and to only travel if they really need to.”
Disruption is also likely to be felt the day after the strikes, with signal boxes in the central belt able to be turned on at around 7.15am, but it could take into the afternoon, ScotRail said, to restore services in other areas.
