ScotRail’s temporary reduced timetable, implemented to help deal with the effects of Omicron, comes to an end next week.
The timetable was put in place after the highly-contagious variant of COVID-19 affected staff numbers. ScotRail designed the timetable to ensure services remained as reliable as possible.
At the peak of infections, 450 ScotRail staff had to take time off.
Currently, about 150 staff are still away from work because of Omicron, of which 50 are drivers.
As of 14 February, services in place prior to the temporary timetable will be reinstated, which will see about 2,000 services a day. This will align with the steady increase of people travelling using the service, ScotRail says.
David Simpson, ScotRail Service Delivery Director, said: “The introduction of some temporary changes to our timetable was important for our customers, providing a level of certainty during a challenging time.
“Those changes have allowed us to keep people moving across the country, and our staff worked flat out to run a safe and reliable railway in really difficult and continually changing circumstances.
“We still face significant challenges, with 150 staff absent, but with things improving, and restrictions across Scotland being relaxed, we are now able to safely reintroduce our full timetable of around 2,000 services a day.
“The pandemic is not over yet and we will still face some disruption due to staff absence, but we are confident of providing a reliable service for our customers.”
