Storm Arwen hit the UK at the weekend, killing at least three and causing major disruption to travel.
Winds of near 100 miles per hour battered the country. By 9pm on Friday, the Department for Infrastructure said its workers had dealt with 130 weather-related incidents.
On Friday, gusts blew debris and damaged infrastructure in Scotland – with the worst hitting the east and the north of the region.
Scotland’s Railway’s control centre, in a Saturday morning briefing, said it was one of the most challenging situations of its kind in recent memory.
Trains in Scotland were cancelled to and from destinations including Perth, Aberdeen, Inverness, Edinburgh, Dundee, Dunbar and North Berwick on Friday; trains that did run faced delays and were disruption by debris that included fallen cables, garden furniture and trees – including one at Glasgow Queen Street which brought services to a halt.
One train was trapped at Huntly station for 17 hours, with passengers waiting inside.
At Polmont, a barn was blown onto the line.
ScotRail sent extra staff to help at a number of affected stations. Where possible, replacement services helped passengers get to their destinations over the weekend.
Services began to reopen from Saturday afternoon, after engineers carried out safety checks.
Throughout Sunday services still suffered some disruption, with suspended services for inspection or maintenance including:
- Edinburgh – North Berwick /Dunbar
- Dundee – Aberdeen
- Aberdeen – Inverness
- Wick – Inverness services bypassing Thurso
- Dumfries – Kilmarnock
Network Rail Scotland was working to restore power on Sunday, including to the Borders Railway because of electricity issues in the region and a damaged lineside power cabinet between Dumfries and Kilmarnock.
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