Tourism and business leaders warn a huge three-day rail strike planned for next week will be a nightmare across the north and north-east, leaving the region “cut off” and “forgotten”.
Anyone planning to visit Aberdeen and Inverness will be seriously disrupted when all services are cancelled next Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday.
It led to a furious backlash including claims the north is being treated like it “doesn’t matter”.
Fergus Mutch, from Aberdeen and Grampian’s Chamber of Commerce, claimed it was “unacceptable” that trains between Glasgow and Edinburgh will continue while none go north.
He claimed the Granite City was “getting the rut end of the deal once again” after weeks of disruption due to a ScotRail pay row.
Mr Mutch warned the rail strike could make it tough for commuting oil workers to reach Aberdeen for work.
He said: “It’s going to be a nightmare. We’ve had severe disruption on our railways for weeks and we’re off the back of a miserable couple of years, it’s going to hit the north-east economy hard.
“Transport infrastructure investment has probably lagged behind other parts of the country. If there’s no trains, we’re scuppered.”
Meanwhile, Jo De Sylva from Visit Inverness warned the Network Rail strike will stop tourists from travelling to the Highlands and damage the local economy.
‘Devastating’
She said: “It’s like we don’t matter anymore. We do kind of become this forgotten area, but we’re incredibly important.
“Tourists are the lifeblood of so many businesses. For this train strike to be happening now is devastating.”
Rail union bosses claim the strike is going ahead because the UK Government is trying to slash jobs.
But Network Rail say workers will have to “compromise” to avoid disruption for passengers.
Boris Johnson and Keir Starmer clashed over the planned strikes during Prime Minister’s Questions yesterday.
The Labour leader claimed the prime minister wants the industrial action to go ahead so he can “feed on division”.
Speaking this morning, Nick King from Network Rail defended the decision to prioritise central belt services in Scotland.
He told the BBC that due to the strikes only a limited number of signalling centres will be open, limiting where trains can continue to run.
