Overcrowding on rail route
Commuter crush as peak hour trains cut carriages
New trains have been delayed
Ten trains a day will run with fewer carriages on Scotland’s busiest route because of delays to the delivery of new rolling stock.
ScotRail has been forced to hand back carriages as their lease has expired, leaving the operator with a shortage.
Four of its three-carriage class 170 diesel trains have come to the end of their lease and have been transferred to other operators.
It has been unable to find temporary carriages as there is no spare stock anywhere on the network.
The carriages were to have been replaced last year by the new class 385 electric trains, manufactured by Japanese company Hitachi.
ScotRail has ordered 46 three-carriage and 24 four-carriage sets of the 385 trains to run between Glasgow and Edinburgh, as well as on suburban routes south of Glasgow and to Dunblane, Stirling and Alloa.
The first batch should have entered service in September but manufacturing hitches and delays to electrification of the line have put this back to late next month.
There are now further potential problems because of driver complaints about poor visibility from the driver’s cab.
In the short term peak-hour trains, which normally operate with six carriages, will have just three or four, creating potential over-crowding problems.
ScotRail said that the new Hitachi trains will increase capacity on the route.
Among the services affected:
Glasgow Queen Street to Edinburgh Waverley via Falkirk High
0600 will run will with four carriages
0745 will run with three carriages
0815 will run with four carriages
Edinburgh Waverley to Glasgow Queen Street via Falkirk High
0645 will run with three carriages
0715 will run with four carriages
0845 will run with three carriages
Evening peak
Glasgow Queen Street to Edinburgh Waverley via Falkirk High
1745 will run with three carriages
1815 will run with four carriages
Edinburgh Waverley to Glasgow Queen Street via Falkirk High
1645 will run with three carriages
1715 will run with four carriages
