Passengers warned of ‘major’ disruption to Scotrail trains between Inverness and Edinburgh/Glasgow today

Passengers have been warned of “major disruption” on Scotrail trains between Inverness and Edinburgh/Glasgow today as services have been cancelled and rerouted via Aberdeen, adding hours to journey times.

Both engineering works and a pay dispute are causing problems with affected routes across the country, although the main northern line appears to be worst hit by the disruption.

A reduced schedule is already in place because only about 50% of services are running on Sundays after drivers refused to work overtime in a row over pay, foreshadowing more disruption.

Currently, the 13.26 direct to Edinburgh will have two fewer carriages, but those travelling on that train to Glasgow Queen Street will have a one-hour wait before changing trains at Stirling. It will also have three carriages, two fewer than normal.

The 3:29pm train to Edinburgh doesn’t arrive until 9:38pm, as passengers are effectively catching a train to Aberdeen, where there is a wait of an hour and 25 minutes, to catch another to Edinburgh – almost doubling the journey time.

Similarly, the 5.03pm flight to Edinburgh also passes through Aberdeen and is due to arrive after a transfer time of two hours and 16 minutes, which doubles the journey time to just under seven hours, and arrives just after midnight.

National Rail is showing that there are no fares available for the 15.29 or 17.03 services to Glasgow Queen Street and they are not available on the Scotrail website, so they have probably been cancelled.

Those travelling from Edinburgh to Inverness will have it easier, with the 15:52, 16:32 and 17:50 times all running as normal. Similarly, from Glasgow, the 15:32, 16:01 and 17:53 times are all running as normal.

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