Scotland’s weather: Commuters’ great escape as trees fall in their thousands

TWO passengers were injured when a train crashed into a fallen tree on the main line from the Highlands to the central belt.

The train’s windscreen was shattered and two carriage windows smashed by the impact of the collision in Perthshire yesterday.

A 15-year-old girl and a 59-year-old man both suffered minor injuries and were treated at the scene by paramedics.

The 43 other passengers and four staff, including the driver, escaped unharmed after he managed to slow the train down after spotting the tree.

The tree had been blown onto the track by high winds sweeping across the country.

The accident happened as Network Rail said it had mounted an “unprecedented” operation to clear thousands of fallen trees from lines throughout the network.

As the clean-up continued yesterday after Tuesday’s major storm, 14,000 households were still without power and communities were counting the cost of flooding in many areas.

The accident involving the 6:47am southbound Scotrail train happened at 8:18am, one mile north of Dunkeld and Birnham station.

One of the passengers, Inverness-based PR executive Peter Kane, who was on his way to Edinburgh to meet clients, said: “It was quite spectacular, this large window staved in, with glass everywhere and a tree sitting in the chair.

“The conductor said some people had cuts and bruises. It was very lucky that someone was not seriously injured.

“It’s ironic that I decided to take the train as I thought the roads would be a bit dodgy.” Alan Zycinski said: “There was just a huge bump and then all the lights went out and some of the windows caved in. I thought we’d derailed or something but there was a tree across the line and we hit it.”

The train was not derailed and was later driven to Dunkeld, where passengers were taken by bus to Perth. Scotrail said services between Inverness and Perth were disrupted.

David Simpson, from Network Rail, said staff worked overnight into yesterday to deal with the effects of the weather.

“This has been unprecedented,” he said. “We’ve cleared thousands of trees from across the whole network – nearly 900 on one stretch of line in Fife alone through Markinch, where there was almost a horizontal forest of trees running over almost a quarter mile of railway.”

Around the country yesterday, thousands of homes started a third day without power following galeforce winds that brought down overhead power lines and threw trees on to vital routes.

ScottishPower said it had reconnected 114,000 homes since the storms began, but 5,000 were still without power. Overnight, it had restored supplies to 8,000 homes but fresh storms cut off another 3,000 in Ayrshire and Dumfries and work had to be suspended due to 70mph winds.

On Wednesday night, the company had to call off more than 50 jobs in the central belt with gusts of 75mph making it unsafe for engineers to work. More than 850 staff are now working on storm damage – the most engineers yet deployed in the ScottishPower area – with extra manpower brought in from across the UK and Ireland.

A spokesman said although the company hoped to restore supply to the majority of customers by last night, it would contact those who may not be reconnected and, where possible, alternative arrangements including accommodation, will be offered.

Tuesday’s gales caused the most damage to the ScottishPower network in central Scotland in 13 years, with the overhead network experiencing more faults in a single day than it would suffer in three months.

The spokesman said customers who have been without power continuously for 48 hours following a storm will be entitled to compensation.

Engineers from Scottish Hydro Electric Power Distribution (SHEPD) restored power to 7,000 homes on Wednesday night but more severe weather caused further problems and 9,000 homes were still cut off yesterday. Almost all were in the Argyll and West region, including the whole of Bute – some 6,000 customers – as well as Dunoon and Lochgilphead. Some areas also lost telephones and mobile signals.

The SHEPD emergency service centre took more than 30,000 calls from customers in 48 hours and engineers have carried out the equivalent of six months of fault repair work within the last four weeks.

Argyll and Bute Council set up a generator at Rothesay Pavilion to provide soup and sandwiches, while pub owners and hoteliers also provided food and shelter to affected residents. Catering vans prepared hot meals in outlying areas.

Severe wind and rain caused flooding in Kilsyth in North Lanarkshire. Fire crews diverted the water using sandbags, while pumps were used to remove the flooding from homes.

Buses replaced trains between Paisley Gilmour Street and Gourock/Wemyss Bay; Dalmuir-Larkhall services were suspended and trains were unable to call at a number of stations between Milngavie and Motherwell/Lanark.

A number of CalMac ferries were disrupted and the snow gates were closed on the A939 road northbound at Cockbridge. A teenager had a lucky escape when a tree fell on his car as he tried to move the vehicle from danger. Keiran Moffat, 19, an apprentice greenkeeper, had been working at the Royal Musselburgh golf course in East Lothian when he saw the 80ft tree crash onto his Vauxhall Corsa.

He said: “I was walking back to the car park and I was about 50 yards away from the car when I heard this loud crack. I bolted in the opposite direction and dived for cover. When I looked back, the car was an absolute wreck.”