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Met Office weather warnings and travel on Friday 8 January

Posted: 8th January 2015

The Met Office has issued amber warnings for parts of the Central Belt and south east Scotland, the Highlands, parts of Aberdeenshire, and the Western Isles and Orkney.

Gusts of 90mph – and more than 100mph in the most exposed areas – are likely, with the potential of structural damage. Very large waves may also lead to dangerous conditions along some coasts from tonight and tomorrow morning.

It is inevitable that such the severe winds and forecast heavy rain will impact on travel, ferry services and road bridges as well as rail where, for example, infrastructure can be affected by fallen debris including trees on tracks and damage to equipment such as overhead electric power lines and signals.

Following discussions with Network Rail, which is responsible for the infrastructure, it has been decided – as a safety precaution – that a limited number of services will be suspended tomorrow on several routes until about 16.00 as these routes are expected to bear the brunt of hurricane force winds or high tides. The routes are:

  • Inverness-Kyle/Thurso/Wick/Aberdeen
  • Kilwinning-Ardrossan/Largs
  • Dumbarton Central-Helensburgh Central
  • Glasgow Queen Street-Oban/Fort William/Mallaig

Tonight’s 19.50 Fort William to Edinburgh and tomorrow morning’s 04.50 Edinburgh to Fort William Caledonian Sleeper services will not run.

Once it is safe to do so, Network Rail and ScotRail will work as quickly as possible to restore all services from late afternoon following inspection of the rail lines for damage.

We are letting people know as soon as possible so that they can consider alternative travel options, and are also recommending that people check our website.

More information is posted at www.scotrail.co.uk and there are also alerts via social media. Our message is: check your journey before setting off, and keep checking.

A further update will be provided on Friday, with more severe weather forecast for Saturday.

Business Comment

Business Comment is the Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce’s bi-monthly magazine. It provides insight on Edinburgh’s vibrant business community, with features on the city’s key sectors, interviews with leading figures and news on new business developments in the capital.
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