A fault at a level crossing caused rush hour travel chaos in the centre of Inverness.
The crossing on Harbour Road near the Millburn Roundabout became stuck with the barriers down at about 9.30pm on Tuesday – and was still broken by the following morning.
The unscheduled closure of the busy road caused widespread congestion throughout Inverness city centre and beyond as motorists tried to find ways to avoid the blockage.
Millburn Road and Academy Street were particularly affected, as were streets in the Crown housing area
Network Rail engineers managed to repair the crossing – which is designated Raigmore – by 10.30am.
A spokesman for the agency said that the fault was caused by a faulty power cable.
He said: “The crossing developed a fault at around 21:00 last night with the crossing barriers stuck in the down position. Engineers attended overnight and identified that a power cable fault was the cause of the issue.
“The cable was replaced, the crossing tested and reopened at 10.30am this morning.”
Meanwhile signalling problems caused widespread disruption on the railways south and east of Inverness.
A signal failure between Inverness and Aviemore caused delays and cancellations on trains on the Highland Mainline, with a limited replacement bus service running between the Highland capital and Perth.
Further disruption was caused by a separate fault with the signalling system between Inverness and Aberdeen throughout much of the afternoon.
A limited replacement bus service was put in place on the route.
