Passengers at Inverness railway station have spoken out about the severe cuts to ScotRail services and the impact it has had on their travels.
Hundreds and hundreds of rail journeys across the country are temporarily unavailable after ScotRail introduced emergency timetables amid a dispute over pay and a lack of train drivers.
The slimmed-down timetable which could last for months has around a third fewer services than usual.
We spoke with passengers travelling to and from Inverness who shared their views on the situation, and how it has affected their journeys.
‘We thought our whole trip was going to be ruined’
Adelina Dimitrova, from Bulgaria, was excited to go travelling around Scotland by rail with her sister for a week’s holiday, and the pair had been planning the journey for months.
Unsurprisingly, their five-train itinerary gave them cause for concern when news broke of the train service disruption.
“My sister booked all the tickets but I was really worried that we might not get to see all the places I really wanted to see in the Highlands – we thought our whole trip was ruined.”
“We were going from Perth to Edinburgh and then to Inverness and back to Perth and then to Dundee and back to Perth again.
“Luckily for us the only service that we found cancelled was one to Dundee so we are now going by car — but we really just want to use the trains.”
‘People tend not to strike without cause’
Cornish tourist Tim Hambly, 62, should have been enjoying the view from the window of the morning train to Kyle of Localsh but instead was sitting waiting with his bags in the train station, reading a George Orwell novel.
He came off the sleeper train an hour before we caught up with him, and assumed he would be stepping onto his Kyle-bound connection without any delay.
However, unbeknownst to him the train he had hoped to get was not running, and he was faced with a two-hour delay.
He expressed disappointment but stressed that the train staff had his support, despite the toll the situation was taking on his trip.
“I do not want to undermine their case,” he said.
“I’m a former trades unionist and having tried to get people to go on strike in my previous work I know that it is not something that people do lightly.
“The train drivers must have a genuine grievance that they feel strongly about.”
‘No one can be working overtime until you drop’
Former Invernessian Margaret Ezzet, who was visiting from Vancouver where she has lived for 25 years, was catching a train to Elgin with a plan to walk the Speyside Way.
The altered timetable cancelled her first train of the day scuppering her catch-up with a friend in Buckie, but she too supports the train drivers.
“No one can be working overtime until you drop,” she said.
“We were born to live, not to work.”
‘If people do not put their foot down, nothing gets changed’
Hamza, a 25-year-old backpacker from Switzerland, said: “If people do not put their foot down and do something, then nothing gets changed.”
Conversation