Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Aberdeen and Inverness train stations deserted on first day of national rail strikes

Aberdeen railway station was deserted this morning. Picture by Chris Cromar/DC Thomson
Aberdeen railway station was deserted this morning. Picture by Chris Cromar/DC Thomson

Aberdeen and Inverness train stations have been deserted today as the usual hustle and bustle was silenced by rail strikes across the UK.

Aberdeen station, which handled nearly 2.5million passengers per year prior to Covid-19, and the Highland capital will have no scheduled trains during the strike days of June, 21, 23 and 25 respectively.

Dubbed as Britain’s biggest rail strike in 30 years, there will be no trains between the cities and from the north and north-east to the Central Belt during the three days.

All train services were off from Aberdeen today. Picture by Chris Cromar/DCT Media.

It means that the usual swarm of commuters and travellers at the station were nowhere to be seen, with people’s journeys disrupted by the strikes that have been organised by the RMT union due to pay and conditions.

One group of people that were affected by the industrial action was the Parsons family from Indiana in the United States who are visiting Scotland for a week as part of two-week holiday in the UK.

‘It’s inconvenient’

They were meant to be getting a train from the Granite City to Inverness today, but had to make alternative arrangements to get to the Highland capital after their journey was disrupted.

Pete Parsons said: “It’s inconvenient, but we’ve managed solutions. People, individuals have been helpful in getting us around.”

Blank departure boards in Inverness. Photo: Sandy McCook/DC Thomson

In order to get to Inverness, they found a man online who will travel two hours to collect them in Aberdeen and take them north.

Mr Parsons added: “We’ve got golf this afternoon at 2.30, we think we’re going to make it.”

More strikes to come

The family will also be affected by the strikes on June 23 and June 25, as they had scheduled to travel from Dornoch to Edinburgh and then to Northumberland after that.

Trains at Inverness going nowhere. Photo: Sandy McCook/DC Thomson

A number of RMT union members were seen striking outside Aberdeen station this morning, with North East Labour MSP, Mercedes Villalba joining members on the picket line in Edinburgh.

She tweeted: “Proud to support RMT members on their picket outside Waverley station this morning. Cut profits, not services. Support the strike, support the workers, defend our rail.”

Conversation