Landslide still causing rail problems

Rail workers fence off the Polmont landslide site

Railtrack has warned that services between Glasgow and Edinburgh will be disrupted until at least Saturday as work continues to clear a landslide.

Emergency engineering work on the main east coast line has also added to the extensive disruption on the railways.

This latest disruption follows last week's chaos, which was caused by emergency engineering work on the main Glasgow to Carlisle line.

That was followed by a programme of repairs which Railtrack started over the weekend following the Hatfield derailment.

Services across Scotland are under strain

The storms which have battered Britain then caused further problems, including the landslip which blocked the Edinburgh to Glasgow route at Polmont on Sunday.

ScotRail is now running a revised timetable after it was forced to reduce the number of trains from four to one an hour in each direction.

Services from Glasgow to Falkirk are now running via Cumbernauld, while services from Glasgow Queen Street to Stirling have been extended to Dunblane.

Amended timetable

The train service from Dunblane to Edinburgh has been replaced with a direct bus service as trains are only running on the line between Stirling and Falkirk Grahamston.

An hourly shuttle service is running from Edinburgh to Linlithgow.

GNER's revised timetable means trains to Glasgow Central, Aberdeen and Inverness stopping at Edinburgh Waverley.

Jeanette Anderson promised more information

Buses are taking passengers to Aberdeen, Inverness and Motherwell.

The company also predicted delays on services to and from London and warned that the revised timetable could run for several weeks.

Scotland's First Minister Henry McLeish has described Railtrack's maintenance programme as "an appalling farce".

The company also came under fire on Monday from Transport Minister Sarah Boyack.

However, Railtrack's Scottish director Jeanette Anderson said the company had regularly updated the Scottish Executive on its maintenance and investment plans.

She also promised that the company would provide more information to passengers by offering daily updates at stations for the rest of the week.

Passengers wishing to check on rail services are asked to ring National Rail Enquiries on 08457 484950.