SCOTTISH rail passengers are facing days of chaos after the main west coast line was blocked by high winds blowing containers off a freight train and on to the tracks.
The accident, in Cumbria yesterday morning, closed direct services between Glasgow and London, as well as major routes to the north-west and south-west of England.
A spokesman for the rail operator said it would be tomorrow at the earliest befor
e the track could be re-opened.
The track is blocked at Shap, one of the most remote parts of the line. Commuters are having to be bussed between Preston and Carlisle.
Last night, one disgruntled passenger, Steven Smith, from Glasgow, said: "Everyone knows that Sunday rail services are bad enough, but this is going to make things 10 times worse. God knows how long it is going to take me to get home from Liverpool."
The containers weigh between two and four tonnes, and they damaged both the overhead cables and the track when they fell.
It was not until the train driver arrived at Lockerbie that he noticed five of them were missing.
A spokesman for Network Rail said:
"The containers are lying close to the track and have damaged some of the rail infrastructure, including damage to the overhead lines and some cabling and some of the track as well. Our role now is to assess the best way to resolve that situation and we will look at how to remove the containers and assess what the damage is and how to repair it."
He added: "At this moment in time there is no estimate for how long it will take but there is quite a bit of work required to get the line open again. I wouldn't want to say how long it will be closed for."
A spokesman for Virgin trains, which operates the London to Glasgow service, said:
"We will get people to their destination if they are using the west coast line, but it will involve severe disruption to their journey."
Passengers who do plan to travel from London to Scotland face a series of switches between rail and road.
A train shuttle is operating between London Euston and Hemel Hempstead but travellers then change to a coach shuttle to Milton Keynes. They then take the train to Preston, where they again change to a coach, to Carlisle. The trains are then running from Carlisle to Glasgow.
According to witnesses the train carrying the containers had just negotiated the Shap incline – one of the longest hills on a main line – when the wind caught it and blew off the containers.
The Met Office said it had recorded a gust of 66mph in the area but a funnelling effect could have meant stronger winds.
Freight operator Freightliner said the containers would have been locked on to the wagons and this was the first time this had happened since the company was formed.
The full article contains 494 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
