Rail passengers in the north were left facing another day of disruption as signalling failures triggered delays.
ScotRail services from Inverness to Wick and Kyle of Lochalsh were subject to delay or revision for some time yesterday morning due to signalling issues at Dingwall.
Network Rail confirmed that a set of points had failed around 8:30am.
Despite onsite engineers managing to fix the fault in minutes, commuters were left facing a knock-on effect.
A Network Rail spokesman said: “Our engineers were on site quickly to identify the issues and get trains on the move. We understand the inconvenience these incidents caused and apologise for the disruption to passengers’ journeys.”
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Moray and Highland residents travelling to and from the north-east were also left facing hours of delays as a result of further signalling issues being experienced in Aberdeen.
Services travelling through Moray to Aberdeen were halted shortly after 8am as rail engineers battled to fix a points failure at Aberdeen Railway Station.
Several services scheduled to depart for Inverness were delayed as engineers spent around an hour resolving the issue; with services returning to normal shortly after 11am.
In a bid to keep customers moving, passengers were given the opportunity to travel by bus.
Rail tickets were accepted on Stagecoach’s northbound services 10, 35 and 37 as part of an on-going partnership between the two transport networks.
A spokesperson for Stagecoach North Scotland said: “We have supported Scotrail today to provide travel options between Aberdeen and Inverness during the rail disruption with train tickets accepted on our scheduled bus services. Full details are available on the Scotrail Twitter feed @ScotRail.”
As the timetable began to return to normal, services travelling on the Highland Main Line began to experience reoccurring problems including staff shortages and reduced facilities.
The 2.40pm Inverness service from Glasgow was reduced from five coaches to three as a result of staff shortages, meanwhile, the 2.48pm service from Inverness to Glasgow was reduced to just two carriages due to maintenance requirements.
The 6.13pm east bound service for Aberdeen was also reduced from three carriages as a result of maintenance requirements.
