Trains back to normal after power cable fault at Glasgow Central

THOUSANDS of commuters were left stranded after a signal problem led to the cancellation of rush-hour services from Glasgow Central station.

The majority of services from Scotland’s busiest station were shut down for more than three hours yesterday, during what would normally be the busiest part of the morning commute.

The problem with the signals was detected at 7:30am and led to the cancellation of almost all high-level services from Central station, one of the busiest in Britain, as thousands returned to work after the Easter break.

Trains to London, Edinburgh, Kilmarnock and East Kilbride, among others, were unable to depart. Virgin Trains had to switch their London service so that it began and ended at Motherwell station.

The cause of the problem, an intermittent shortage of power affecting the signals and rendering them unsafe, took several of hours to locate and was finally traced by engineers from Network Rail to a power cable in the Polmadie area of Glasgow.

The fault was corrected by 10:30 am, but by then a backlog of services had developed, leading to a further period of cancellation and delays.

Normal services were finally restored by late afternoon.

The key routes affected were Edinburgh-Glasgow via Shotts, Barrhead, Cathcart Circle, Kilmarnock, Neilston, Newton and East Kilbride. Trains on the Ayrshire and Inverclyde routes had to start and stop at Paisley Gilmour Street.

David Simpson, route managing director at Network Rail Scotland, said: “We were on site within ten minutes and have been working since then to rectify the problem.”

A ScotRail spokeswoman said: “We launched an information offensive as soon as the Network Rail signalling problems affected our services.

“This included alerts to radio and TV for early morning travel bulletins, and we also took part in at least eight live radio interviews. Our website carried full details of the disruption.

“Handling disruption is a real focus for ScotRail, with recent initiatives ranging from providing smartphones to more than 800 on-train staff to pass on real-time information to our improved website and JourneyAlert service. This work will continue.

“We had extra staff on the ground to assist customers and organised replacement transport where possible. We apologise for journeys being affected by circumstances that were beyond our control.”

By lunchtime, the information screens were still listing many services as either delayed or cancelled, much to the annoyance of commuters. One man, who did not wish to be named, said: “It’s always when you have to be on time. It never seems to happen on a Saturday or when you don’t care.”

For Amie Caunter, 17, the delayed services were causing a rising level of anxiety as she was due at work at a hotel in Dunoon. “We’ve a wedding tonight,” she said.

Her friend, Ali Pate, also 17, said: “It is just a pain when there is disruption. I just want to get home.”