ScotRail passengers on the Far North Line facing hour-long delays and cancellation misery after Highland track signalling fault at Ardgay in Sutherland; some Inverness-Wick trains delayed and Inverness-Dingwall services cancelled
Rail passengers on the Far North Line are facing lengthy delays and cancellations after a signalling fault left multiple trains running almost an hour late.
The problems started with the 7.02am Lairg to Inverness service, which was delayed for 35 minutes at Ardgay after an issue with the points.
The train was ultimately roughly 50 minutes late into Inverness having had to wait for passing northbound trains at Tain and Muir of Ord once it finally got back under way.
But the signalling issue appears to have also affected other trains as well, with the first train south from Wick and first train service to Wick from Inverness both delayed at Lairg for 58 and 57 minutes respectively due to an unspecified fault with the "signalling system".
And further disruption is likely. The line's lengthy stretches of single track with passing places often leads to a domino effect where one late train causes knock-on delays to the next and so on as they wait to pass one another.
Indeed, at the time of writing, it was announced that the 11.43am Inverness to Dingwall and 12.45pm Dingwall to Inverness services were cancelled due to “a signalling fault”. Although not specified, it it likely this fault is a reference to the earlier disruption further north and trains being out of position on the network.
And with three trains running almost an hour late this morning, and two further ones now cancelled, there's a potential risk for further disruption as the day progresses. Passengers are advised to check their journeys at scotrail.co.uk or journeycheck.com/scotrail.
The faults on the Far North Line comes amid wider disruption to trains in the Highlands on Thursday, with services on the Highland Mainline affected by an emergency incident in the Gleneagles area which blocked the track between Stirling and Perth.
The line has since reopened, but knock-on disruption continues to affect some services between Inverness and the central belt.