Liam Gallagher fans face rail strike disruption for Glasgow gig
- Published
Liam Gallagher fans have been urged to consider their travel options for Sunday's concert in Glasgow due to the fallout from the third rail strike.
Services across the country will be disrupted as signal boxes reopen at staggered times after the 24-hour walkout on Saturday.
About 50,000 people are expected to attend the ex-Oasis star's Hampden gig.
ScotRail is encouraging people to arrive early as reduced hourly services will be running.
As a result of the temporary timetable,, external which has been in place since 5 June, the last train back to the city centre will leave at 20:38.
There will also be no trains from Mount Florida or Kings Park after the event finishes.
And there will be no trains out of the city centre after the concert ends at 22:30.
Phil Campbell, ScotRail head of customer operations, said: "We'll be doing what we can to help Liam Gallagher fans travel to Hampden Park on Sunday, but customers should plan ahead as services will be impacted by Saturday's Network Rail RMT strike action, engineering work near Haymarket and Barrhead, and by the temporary timetable we currently have in place.
"Services between Glasgow Central and Mount Florida, and between Glasgow Central and Kings Park are expected to be exceptionally busy due the reduced temporary Sunday timetable, so we're encouraging customers to travel to the stadium early if they can or consider what alternative transport is available."
About 40,000 Network Rail staff have taken part in the strike in a dispute over pay, working conditions and redundancies.
ScotRail cancelled 90% of its services on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. Cross-border services have also been badly affected.
On the days of strike action the operator is only running services on five routes across the country between the hours of 07:30 and 18:30.
These routes are:
Edinburgh to Glasgow via Falkirk High: two trains per hour
Edinburgh to Bathgate: two trains per hour
Glasgow to Hamilton/Larkhall: two trains per hour
Glasgow to Lanark: two trains per hour
Edinburgh to Glasgow via Shotts: one train per hour
In a bid to reduce pressure on the limited services ScotRail is advising customers to only travel if they really need to and to consider alternative options where possible.
It is believed many people have chosen to work at home on strike days, with Transport Scotland reporting no significant increase in road traffic.
First Glasgow said there was a 13% increase on bus passengers in the city on Tuesday compared with the same time last week.
Deputy First Minister John Swinney called for "more urgency" from UK ministers and the Department for Transport (DfT) to break the deadlock.
In response the DfT said it was encouraging the unions and industry to agree a deal to call off the strikes.
The RMT said Network Rail's plans to cut 2,500 jobs would put safety at risk and has warned that strikes could continue over the next six months.
Network Rail Scotland said it was keen to reach a resolution but stressed any deal that was done had to be fair on both its workers and on the taxpayer.