Storm Darragh travel misery as snow gate closures and ScotRail cancellations hit north

Storm Darragh was bringing widespread disruption to the north of Scotland on Saturday morning.

All of Saturday’s local service trains between Inverness and Elgin have been cancelled as a result of blanket speed restrictions on the line, with ScotRail prioritising services that run the full distance from Inverness-Aberdeen instead in order to accommodate the slower travel times that accompany the lower limits. At the other end of the line, local services travelling back and forth between Inverurie and Aberdeen were also suspended for the same reason.

The suspension of local services means that there will be fewer trains stopping at the likes of Inverness Airport, Nairn, Forres and Elgin than normal, but passengers will still be able to use those stations.

However, passengers are being urged to check their journeys before travel, as services on the line may still be delayed by up to 30 minutes today, and could also be cancelled or revised.

Motorists on higher level roads were also facing snow amid an active yellow weather warning for wintry weather in parts of the region.

Snow gates have been closed on the A939 at Tomintoul and Cock Bridge, while further south the A93 between Braemar and Spittal of Glenshee is also shut for the same reason.

Active Traffic Scotland road cameras were also showing snow on the A9 at the likes of Daviot and the Drumochter Pass, although ploughs and gritters appeared to be keeping the route clear at the time of writing.

Overnight treatments completed. Snow is still forecast through parts of this morning on the #A9 at Trinafour – Drumochter – Slochd. We have five spreaders out at this area with 16 more patrols keeping an eye on the network. Please #DriveSafe pic.twitter.com/LrdcgLs9CV

— BEAR NW Trunk Roads (@NWTrunkRoads) December 7, 2024

CalMac meanwhile has warned passengers on its ferries to expect disruption. Winds in parts of the Irish Sea and off the south-west coast of Scotland are subject to red and amber wind warnings respectively, while further north-west yellow warnings are in place.

Further away from the worst of the gales, the Ullapool-Stornoway route was still running on Saturday morning, but even here, CalMac has warned passengers that the 2.30pm Stornoway departure and the 6.30pm sailing from Ullapool are liable to cancellation at short notice due to “strong winds and sea swell conditions”.

Elsewhere, rail passengers on the Highland Mainline were already facing disruption due to ongoing engineering works which have closed the line between Perth and Inverness – with bus replacements in operation.

But even away from there, the disruption across Scotland’s rail network was noticeable – with more than 100 separate journeys already showing as cancelled on routes dotted across the country at the time of writing.

However, there was better news for passengers using services on the Far North and the Kyle lines, which were running to timetable at the time of writing.

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