New rail link opens with replacement buses

In contrast with the late and over budget Stirling-Alloa-Kincardine line, delayed Borders railway and cancelled Glasgow airport rail link, the 370 million Airdrie-Bathgate route had been on course with few hiccups.

However, moments after transport minister Stewart Stevenson arrived by rail to officially open the new Bathgate station, another train broke down, plunging services into chaos.

Passengers, who had started using the station just hours before, had to transfer to buses, with Mr Stevenson also making other arrangements to return to Edinburgh.

The problem was caused by an electric test train, checking new overhead wires on the route, which blocked one of the two tracks after tripping the electrical system, which switched off the power.

The ill-fated vehicle, on its first day of line testing, had run from Edinburgh to Bathgate before breaking down near Livingston North station on its return journey. Services resumed three and a half hours later.

Esther Sutton, 38, a bank worker from Bathgate, who was late for work because of the problem, said: "It is really unfortunate this has happened on the opening of the new station and it must be a bit embarrassing."

• Scotland to retain train fare price cap

The train will be one of those to run on the new line when it opens on 12 December. The 15 miles of new track west to Drumgelloch, near Airdrie, will create a new east-west rail link between Edinburgh and Helensburgh and Milngavie, via Glasgow. Trains on the existing Edinburgh-Bathgate section are diesel powered.

The new station is 400 yards from the old one, which closed on Saturday.

A ScotRail spokeswoman said: "We organised buses to run in both directions. We would like to apologise to customers whose journeys were disrupted this morning."

A Network Rail spokesman said: "Services on the Bathgate branch line were disrupted by a power failure at Livingston North.

"Engineers worked as quickly as possible to rectify the fault and minimise disruption."