Train services in Scotland will be severely disrupted during the latest round of strikes by Network Rail employees who are members of the RMT union.
Strikes will take place on Saturday, 5th, Monday, 7th and Wednesday, 9th November. As well as in Scotland, they will affect all the rest of the British railway network. The strikes result from a pay dispute with Network Rail, which is responsible for the railway's track and infrastructure.
Although the dispute does not involve ScotRail staff, as the strike involves Network Rail staff in Scotland however, it will have a major impact on ScotRail's ability to operate services. Many Network Rail staff that take part in the strikes occupy safety-critical roles, hence the reason will not be possible for ScotRail to run most of its services.
ScotRail customers, this means a very limited number of services will operate on a limited number of routes.
On the days of strike action, ScotRail will operate a similar timetable as during the previous strikes at the beginning of October. Services will only run on 11 routes across the Central Belt, Fife, and the Borders, and only between the hours of 07.30 and 18.30.
The following are the routes where services will run:
- Edinburgh Waverley to Glasgow Queen Street via Falkirk High: two trains per hour
- Edinburgh Waverley to Helensburgh Central: two trains per hour (because of engineering works, on 5 November only this will operate Edinburgh Waverley to Dalmuir only)
- Glasgow Central to Hamilton/Larkhall: two trains per hour
- Glasgow Central to Lanark: two trains per hour
- Edinburgh Waverley to Glasgow Central via Shotts: one train per hour
- Edinburgh Waverley to Cowdenbeath: two trains per hour
- Edinburgh Waverley to Tweedbank: two trains per hour
- Edinburgh Waverley to Larbert: one train per hour
- Glasgow Queen Street to Larbert: one train per hour
- Glasgow Queen Street to Falkirk Grahamston: one train per hour
- Milngavie to Springburn: two trains per hour
There will be no passenger services on any other routes.
ScotRail is only able to provide this very limited service because of the number of staff required to cover for those on strike. The strike also means there will be a very limited service for rugby fans heading to Murrayfield for Scotland's match against Fiji.
For those services that do run, the final services will depart well before 18.30. Disruption to ScotRail services will not be confined to the strike days but will also affect the day subsequent days, i.e. Sunday, 6th, Tuesday, 8th, and Thursday, 10th November because of disruption caused by the reopening of signal boxes at different times across the country.
Customers with an Advance, Off-Peak, or Anytime ticket dated for strike days can use it for travel the day before, or up to and including Friday, 11th November, change their tickets to travel on a different date, or claim a refund if their train is cancelled or rescheduled. Further information about the strike action's effect on ScotRail services, including ScotRail's refund policy, can be found at scotrail.co.uk/strike.
David Simpson, ScotRail Service Delivery Director, said: “Once again, it's really disappointing to see the dispute between Network Rail and the RMT result in more widespread disruption across the whole Great Britain rail network at a time when we need to be encouraging more people back to the railway.
“For ScotRail, it's going to mean that we won't be able to operate the vast majority of our services, which we know will be really frustrating for our customers.
“ScotRail customers should expect significant disruption to services on strike days, as well as on the days after industrial action.
“We're advising customers to seek alternative means of transport and to only travel if you really need to on the days of strike action. Customers should check your journey in advance to make sure your train is running if you're travelling on one of the days following strike action.”
