Passengers locked out of Haymarket Station

Published on Thursday 25 December 2008 18:18

DOZENS of early-morning commuters have been locked out of one of Scotland's busiest railway stations because of a lack of staff to open the doors.

Passengers were left out in the cold at Haymarket in Edinburgh after they found entrances to the building shut.

First ScotRail, which runs the station, used by four million people a year, said the incident last Friday had been caused by an "unexpected staffing issue".

Javier Albert, who was among passengers who missed their trains, said: "I went to catch a train to Kirkcaldy, only to find the doors of the station where shut.

"Me and around other 50 train users were waiting in the cold with absolutely no information of what was going on."

Mr Albert called for "on the spot" compensation for such mismanagement rather than having to fill in a claim form.

A spokeswoman for First ScotRail said the station should have opened at 5:15am, but did not open until 6:30am. This was due to a combination of staff sickness and holidays.

The spokeswoman said the doors were opened by a member of staff not in uniform, rather than a passenger trying to get out of the station after alighting from a train, as some had claimed.

She said: "We apologise for the inconvenience caused to customers on this occasion."