Scotland’s railway has faced a challenging period with extreme weather conditions having a severe impact on infrastructure and trains.
Storm Ali caused major line blockages, with multiple trees falling onto lines, and overhead wires damaged, resulting in significant disruption to services.
The rail industry performance measure – trains that arrive within five minutes of their scheduled time, having stopped at all scheduled stations – for the four-week period to 13 October was 81.8%.
All six of the top incidents that contributed to the disruption were caused by strong winds during Storm Ali, impacting on services across the country. These included:
- Multiple trees falling on lines throughout the country
- Overhead line damage on key routes around Glasgow Central
ScotRail Alliance Managing Director Alex Hynes said:
“We faced significant challenges during Storm Ali which had an understandable impact on our performance. We know that the disruption affected our customers, we understand their frustration and we are sorry that their journeys were impacted upon so much during the storm.
“Everyone at ScotRail and Network Rail worked flat out to keep people moving and to get services returned to normal as quickly as possible.
“We are investing billions in improved infrastructure and hundreds of millions of pounds on new and upgraded trains as we continue to do everything we can to improve performance. It’s part of our plan to build the best railway Scotland has ever had.”