West Lothian rail passengers have been warned to expect disruption and plan ahead due to planned strike action taking place next week.
RMT members of Network Rail and currently set to strike on January 3, 4, 6 and 7. While the dispute does not involve ScotRail staff, it will impact the train operator’s ability to provide services.
Many of the Network Rail staff that are due to take part in the planned industrial action occupy safety-critical roles and, as such, it will not be possible for ScotRail to run the vast majority of services.
ScotRail says that on strike days the train operator will run some services across the Central Belt, Fife, and the Borders between 7.30am and 6.30pm with final services departing well beofre 6.30pm.
Due to the greater reliance on manual signalling outside the Central Belt, Network Rail is unable to facilitate passenger services on any other routes on the strike days while a limited operation will be in place on the non-strike day (January 5).
Additionally, on the non-strike day Thursday, 5 January, the same limited timetable will be in operation.
David Simpson, ScotRail Service Delivery Director, said: “It’s really disappointing to see more widespread disruption across the whole Great Britain rail network as a result of the dispute between Network Rail and the RMT 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 between 3 and 7 January, which we know will be really frustrating for our customers.
“We’re advising customers to seek alternative means of transport and to only travel if they really need to on the days of strike action.
“Customers should check their journey in advance to make sure your train is running.”
Customers are advised to visit www.scotrail.co.uk/strike for more information.
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