Commuters are facing another day of disruption after it was confirmed no trains will run in Tayside or Fife on Wednesday.
Limited services will be running across Scotland’s central belt only due to strike action by RMT members, including signallers.
Although ScotRail and Caledonian Sleeper staff are not part of the industrial action, workers from Network Rail Scotland along with cross-border operators LNER, CrossCounty, Avanti West Coast and TransPennine Express will be involved.
No services north of Edinburgh
LNER has confirmed that none of its services will run north of Edinburgh on the day.
Meanwhile ScotRail’s services will be focused on the Glasgow and Edinburgh areas.
Operators also say there may be a knock-on effect to services on Tuesday and Thursday.
Further action is planned on August 18 and 20.
The action involves 14 operators across the UK after talks failed to resolve a row over pay and jobs.
It comes just days after ScotRail reinstated its timetable following weeks of disruption caused by a pay dispute.
Rail industry ‘deeply affected by the pandemic’
Liam Sumpter, Network Rail Scotland route director, said: “We understand the disruption this strike will cause and apologise to passengers for the impact on their journeys.
“Our industry has been deeply affected by the pandemic, with passenger numbers still at only 75% of pre-Covid levels.
“We must modernise to put our railway on a sound financial footing for the future. This will reduce the burden on taxpayers.
“We are working hard to run as many trains as possible on strike days for our passengers and freight customers to keep as many people moving as we possibly can.”
The train operating companies have put driver-only operations on the table along with ransacking our members’ terms and conditions
RMT
Speaking as strike action was confirmed, RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said: “Network Rail have not made any improvement on their previous pay offer and the train companies have not offered us anything new.
“In fact Network Rail have upped the ante, threatening to impose compulsory redundancies and unsafe 50% cuts to maintenance work if we did not withdraw our planned strike action.
“The train operating companies have put driver-only operations on the table along with ransacking our members’ terms and conditions.”
Conversation