Scottish passengers on busy rail routes will suffer fresh disruption today because of another strike by train managers and flooding brought by bad weather. The industrial action is set to impact services in Edinburgh and Glasgow. Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) at Avanti West Coast will walk out for the second time this week in a dispute over rest-day working.
Landslides and flooding have also caused chaos for in the Highlands, with services between Inverness and the Caithness towns of Thurso and Wick. Flooding at the village of Beauly as a result of bad weather has caused three separate landslips along the route and will see the lines being closed all day.
Services between Inverness and Glasgow and Edinburgh have been hit, with Network Rail having to inspect the routes due to flooding in the village of Kingussie, Badenoch and Strathspey, and the Perth and Kinross town of Dalguise. As a result, all trains to and from the central belt and Inverness will come and go from Perth.
An Avanti West Coast train at Edinburgh Waverley station.
(Image: Ken Jack/Getty Images.)
There will be a limited service running between Glasgow Central Station and Preston, while there will be no Avanti West Coast services to or from Edinburgh. The intercity operator will run one train an hour between Euston and each of Wolverhampton (via Birmingham), Crewe and Manchester.
These trains will operate during limited hours – with the first train of the day leaving Euston around 8am and the last train of the day from Euston departing before 5pm. The greatly reduced timetables will also mean there are no Avanti West Coast services to or from North Wales and Blackpool.
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Avanti said passengers who do travel should plan ahead, expect disruption and check the details of their last train home. RMT members who work as train managers at Avanti West Coast will also be striking every Sunday from 12 January until 25 May 2025. Kathryn O’Brien, executive director of customer experience at Avanti West Coast, said: “We’re disappointed by the RMT calling strike action on 2 January.
“Our customers will face significantly disrupted journeys as a result, and I would like to thank them for their patience and understanding. On the strike day we’ll have a significantly reduced service, so customers with tickets for January 2 are strongly advised to travel on alternative dates or claim a full fee-free refund.
“We remain open to working with the RMT to resolve the dispute.” An RMT spokesperson said: “It is wholly unacceptable that replacement managers can be paid around £500 per shift, about double what our Avanti members earn-while not providing the same service for passengers.
“This kind of destructive approach has been seen time and again across train operating companies and is a hangover from the previous Conservative government, which encouraged practices that reward managers with excessive payouts instead of resolving disputes.
“Reaching a fair settlement would be more cost-effective and make far better use of Avanti’s resources. At the heart of the problem is a serious staff shortage, which is why there’s such a heavy reliance on overtime in the first place.”
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