'Check before you travel', warns ScotRail boss during Edinburgh festivals, as 600 fewer trains to run

As The Scotsman reported on Thursday, more trains have been added to ScotRail’s reduced temporary timetable for people heading for the Edinburgh festivals.

But ScotRail communications director David Ross has stressed there will be “fewer services” than normal, with the number of trains on Sunday, in particular, “significantly reduced” due to shortages of train crews.

Evening trains on the main Edinburgh-Glasgow line via Falkirk High, which had been cut to hourly from 7pm because of an ongoing dispute involving ScotRail drivers, will be restored to half hourly between Mondays and Saturdays from this Saturday.

Mr Ross has advised people travelling to the Edinburgh festivals by train to “check before you travel”.

“We are operating on a temporary timetable at the moment, so there are fewer services than they normally would be for the festivals,” he told the BBC.

“So our advice to passengers is to check before you travel. Take a look at the ScotRail website or the app and, if you can, don’t leave it until the very last train, because we do expect services to be very busy.”

Mr Ross explained the temporary timetable was due to a reliance on “rest-day working and overtime” by train drivers, and said the company was looking to recruit more drivers to reduce this.

He said: “The work that we’re doing just now to hire another 800 drivers over the course of the next five years will help us to significantly reduce reliance on rest day working and run as reliable a service as we possibly can.”

An additional 12.15am Edinburgh to Glasgow service has been added to the temporary timetable and will run on all days, except on Sunday nights. Extra carriages will be added to other late-night services on some routes across the Central Belt.

However, trains on the main Edinburgh-Glasgow line will continue to operate once every hour on Sundays as part of the reduced temporary timetable introduced by ScotRail last month after some drivers stopped volunteering for overtime.

On weekdays, the temporary timetable has reduced services by about 600 trains a day across the ScotRail network, with frequencies halved on some routes.