ScotRail has warned passengers that services around Edinburgh and the Lothians will be impacted by wild weather on Friday afternoon.
Network Rail has said that they are dealing with damage to overhead lines on the East Coast Mainline near Prestonpans. This has brought a halt to services travelling between Edinburgh and North Berwick and severe disruption is to be expected throughout Friday 9.
They say that teams are responding to the incident now and that those travelling should check both Network Rail and Scotrail’s Twitter channels. As a result of the damaged lines, ScotRail have arranged for rail tickets to be accepted on local bus routes.
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These include Lothian Buses 26 service that is travelling from Musselburgh to Prestonpans as well as Perrymans Bus 253 service from Edinburgh to Musselburgh Dunbar. Adverse weather conditions are expected to result in blanket emergency speed restrictions that will be expected to remain in place throughout Friday 30 and the morning of Saturday October 1.
Earlier this afternoon, services travelling from Fife to South Gyle had been affected by a tree on the line in the South Gyle area. ScotRail say that they are awaiting confirmation from Network Rail that will allow them to continue running trains along the route again.
A yellow weather warning was issued by the Met Office for most of Scotland, including West Lothian. They reported that the downpours and high winds would strike the capital at 8.00am and would last until just after 2.00pm.
The UK Met Office warned residents to expect heavy rains which would bring a chance of flooding and disruption to traffic. The weather forecasters said bus and train services would “probably be affected with journey times taking longer,” and warned that “spray and flooding on roads will probably make journey times longer.”
The Met Office has warned that between 20-30mm of rain was likely to fall in a few hours with up to 40mm in one or two places across the north of Scotland.
The Met Office weather warning said: “An area of heavy rain will spread from the west Friday morning. Accumulations of 20-30mm are likely in a few hours with a chance of up to 40mm in one or two places, chiefly across higher parts.
“Southerly winds will touch gale at times with fallen leaves adding to the risk of flooding and possible disruption to transport. The rain is expected to clear to showers early to mid-afternoon.”
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