Chill wind blows on Highland rail line

PASSENGERS on Scotland's best-loved railway who are already enduring long delays at stations and trees obscuring the views have been hit with a new discomfort - freezing carriages.

Long-suffering travellers on the world-famous West Highland lines are being left shivering on journeys of up to five hours after the trains' internal doors were removed.

Campaigners claim carriages have been turned into wind tunnels, making rail travel between Glasgow, Oban and Mallaig almost unbearable.

The routes have twice been voted the most scenic in the world by travel magazine Wanderlust and will this week be the focus of Michael Portillo's Great British Railway Journeys series on BBC2.

However, regular passengers have complained about lengthy stops in stations because of antiquated signalling and the failure to clear trackside vegetation that has obscured views of lochs and mountains.

They say the latest discomfort is the final straw and want the trains replaced.

Train operator ScotRail took out the manually- operated sliding doors after a carriage crashed on to its side when it hit fallen boulders on the Oban branch of the line at Cruachan last summer.

Doug Carmichael, of the Friends of the West Highland Lines, said: "There have been numerous complaints of very drafty coaches. It is a big retrograde step. There must be a replacement."

John McCormick, chairman of the Scottish Association for Public Transport, and another regular passenger, said: "Trains are now freezing on cold days. Staff are also unhappy."

ScotRail said the doors had posed a potential risk and it was seeking to improve the trains' heating.