Trains delayed after signalling problems at Queen Street

Signal problems at Glasgow Queen Street caused chaos for commuters. Picture: John Devlin

Hundreds of passengers faced disruption after rail chiefs were forced to shut the tunnel leading out of Glasgow Queen Street station following the discovery of a fault early yesterday.

Students attempting to travel into university on their first day back after the summer holidays were also affected – with many taking to social media in anger.

Trains between Queen Street and Edinburgh via Falkirk High were reduced to a half-hourly service, with disruption continuing until the early afternoon.

It is understood the problems stemmed from a fault with an axle counter – a device that detects trains passing between two points. The system had to be replaced before trains could use the track as normal.

Stressed-out commuters  reported “massive queues” and “packed trains” at both stations as ongoing delays continued throughout the day.

One man travelling into the Capital from Linlithgow, who asked not to be named, insisted the crammed carriages could easily have led to injuries as “people were stumbling about all over the place”.

He said: “I’ve never seen so many people on the platforms at Linlithgow as there were yesterday morning.

“My train was running 35 minutes late, but as the ones before and after it were cancelled there must have been about 250 people trying to get on an already packed train.

“There wasn’t a scrap of space to be had on any of the carriages and when we went round a bend, people were stumbling about all over the place – someone could easily have been badly hurt.

“It’s not good enough when they’re charging almost a tenner for a 15-minute journey.”

Angry travellers also took to social media to blast rail operators for the hold-ups.

Steven Adams tweeted: “Since @ScotRail seem incapable of running a decent service from Glasgow to Edinburgh I wonder when they will price it accordingly.”

And Laura Brown wrote: “Late for my first day at uni. Due to signalling issues in Glasgow! Thanks @ScotRail.”

Meanwhile, Carmel Cook tweeted: “Forever ‘signalling issues’ – your company is a sham, saying [you are] on time until we reach Glasgow and now just ‘delayed’, no idea how long.”

A ScotRail Alliance spokeswoman said: “We apologise to our customers for any inconvenience caused, and thank them for their patience.”

The company said those who had suffered delays to their journey of 30 minutes or more could claim back some or all of the price of their ticket by picking up a form from stations or filling one out online.