Major Scottish rail line remains closed to passengers after Storm Babet
A Scottish rail line has been closed, after signal faults and a "huge number of leaves onto the railway".
The Fife[1] Circle line remained out of operation on Saturday afternoon, with Network Rail[2] confirming "serious safety issues". This comes as the Met Office issued a yellow weather[3] warning for icy conditions across Scotland, with further "disruption" to travel expected.
In a series of tweets, Network Rail said: "The Fife Circle is currently closed, due to multiple signal faults in areas of the route.
"Storm Babet t ’s winds have brought a huge number of leaves onto the railway – everyone’s heard of ‘leaves on the line’, but it’s a serious safety issue.
"The heat and weight of trains running over them yesterday have baked them into a thin, slippery layer on the rail.
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"It’s the railway equivalent of black ice on the road. It has two effects.
"The first is it makes it harder for trains to accelerate and brake. The second is that they form a barrier between train wheels and the signalling system that lets our signallers ‘see’ where trains are.
"When this happens, like it has in Fife this morning, it’s not safe to run trains. We know this is frustrating, particularly for those passengers already been disrupted by Storm Babet over the past few days.
" We’re working on a plan to clean the rails and reopen the railway as soon as we can, and we’ll share another update soon. We’ll be doing this by using a ‘leaf-buster’ train, which cleans the top of the rail by blasting it with a high-pressure water jet to clear leaf mulch.
"These also apply a sandy gel behind the train, that helps the train wheels grip the tracks."
References
- ^ Fife (www.edinburghlive.co.uk)
- ^ Network Rail (www.edinburghlive.co.uk)
- ^ weather (www.edinburghlive.co.uk)
- ^ Edinburgh residents issued yellow weather warning with icy conditions causing 'disruption' (www.edinburghlive.co.uk)
- ^ Edinburgh eatery up for Scotland's Restaurant of the Year at top awards (www.edinburghlive.co.uk)
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