Rail routes face more disruption

Four people died in the crash near Hatfield

Train services in parts of Scotland will not return to normal for at least two weeks, rail operators have warned.

The continued delays have been forecast after Railtrack said the line north of Hatfield was unlikely to re-open before 6 November.

The track was closed after the fatal derailment in Hertfordshire on Tuesday, in which four people died and 35 were injured.

Great North Eastern Railway (GNER) trains to Inverness, Aberdeen and Glasgow Central will not get back to normal until the line is re-opened.

Services from Glasgow to Edinburgh were disrupted

The Secretary of the Rail Users Consultative Committee in Scotland, Bill Ure, said there had already been "substantial" disruption to travellers heading for Inverness and Aberdeen.

Buses were being provided to minimise the problem after GNER switched some trains to England, and Scotrail is also accommodating large numbers of extra passengers.

Trains on the Edinburgh to Glasgow route, which had seen services cut on Thursday, are now running as normal again.

But there are still delays on the west coast main line between Glasgow and London because of speed restrictions.

Safety inspections carried out by Railtrack on Thursday identified at least six points on the Scottish railway system that needed to be checked.

Areas of concern

Two of the sections which initially gave cause for concern were on the Edinburgh to Glasgow route.

Railtrack said problems which were not related to the Hatfield crash had been discovered on the route.

However, it also identified six areas of concern on the west coast main line.

The company has identified as many as 100 track locations across the UK "with similar characteristics to that at the stretch of track at Hatfield", where speed restrictions have now been imposed.

The initial inquiry into the cause of the crash has shown that a broken rail almost certainly caused the accident.

The Health and Safety Executive released details of its interim investigation, showing that the rail line was in need of repair, on Friday.