Scottish rail and bus operators are to lay on 17,500 extra seats in and out of Fife to help avert gridlock on the roads after the Forth Road Bridge’s emergency closure last week.
As ministers brace themselves for further rush hour congestion on Monday morning on nearby roads and motorways, ScotRail said it had hired two extra high speed trains from England and Stagecoach had found 33 extra buses to run more services from Fife to Edinburgh.
Scottish government officials admitted that the extra emergency seats would not be able to withstand the heavy volume of rush-hour traffic from commuters driving to work from Fife, Tayside and Perthshire into Edinburgh on Monday morning.
With the bridge due to be shut until early January, there will still be a “residual gap” each day of at least 2,000 cars which will not be catered for in the morning, with a similar large gap as drivers head north in the evening rush hour.
Used by about 100,000 people and 70,000 vehicles a day, the bridge normally sees 6,300 cars crossing it southbound in peak morning rush hours. There are still discussions about the potential for a ferry service across the Forth, despite the winter weather.
Last Friday’s emergency closure of the bridge, after the discovery on Tuesday of a 20mm crack in the weld of a steel truss, saw chaos in surrounding roads. At its peak, drivers heading for the Kincardine bridge were caught in an 11 mile-long (18 km) queue.
Derek Mackay, the Scottish transport minister, said he expected further travel problems despite the extra train and bus seats. He hoped drivers would plan alternative ways of getting to work, by increasing car sharing or by staggering their journeys.
“Since we took the necessary decision to close the Forth Road Bridge on safety grounds, the patience and co-operation displayed by the travelling public and affected businesses is appreciated, but there is no doubt people will continue to experience disruption over this period,” he said.
“We are putting in place as many measures as possible to help this situation but these will only be effective if we have the support of the public.
“Through carefully planning journeys, considering travelling at different times or considering other options such as car sharing and working from home, even though there will still be delays, we can all work together to come through this challenging situation.”
Transport Scotland has set up a new website page to set out the alternative travel options, extra trains and revised timetables.
ScotRail’s managing director, Phil Verster, said the company had had to cancel some branch line services to divert rolling stock to help provide the extra trains and drivers for Fife and Edinburgh.
It had also taken some trains out of workshops where they were being refurbished to add to the supply. In all, that would increase seat numbers by 40%, or 6,500 seats every weekday, he said.
“These are exceptional circumstances and we have taken exceptional steps to address them,” Verster said. “By bringing in other trains from across the UK, pulling trains from our major refurbishment programme and, regrettably, moving a small number of trains from other parts of the network, we have managed to add an extra forty per cent capacity on our trains in and out of Fife.”
Sam Greer, Stagecoach’s regional director for Scotland, said the longer journeys to and from Fife would mean journey times to Edinburgh would rise to two hours. Stagecoach had decided to cut its return ticket prices to £3 per adult in compensation.
Buses will be allowed to use a new, specially-created bus priority route with lorry drivers along the A985 Kincardine to Rosyth trunk road.
