A UK Government-owned train company is to run extra services during The Open after ScotRail services were slashed.
Due to an ongoing pay dispute around 700 ScotRail services have been axed every single day since the end of May.
But despite a pay deal being agreed earlier this week, the Scottish Government-owned ScotRail was not able to reinstate its full timetable in time for The Open in St Andrews.
A total of 290,000 tickets have been sold for this year’s competition.
Now LNER has announced it will run four extra services between Edinburgh Waverley and Dundee every day throughout the competition – double the number the franchise normally runs.
Each of these services will stop at Leuchars Railway Station, the nearest station to St Andrews.
Extra trains to The Open welcomed
The announcement has been welcomed by Wendy Chamberlain, Lib Dem MP for North East Fife.
She said: “I’m glad that LNER are stepping in to fill the gap left by ScotRail.
“The Open is one of the biggest sporting events in the world, bringing hundreds of thousands of visitors to St Andrews, yet the Scottish Government seem completely uninterested in whether it is a success.
“Their engagement with travellers and rail operators has been a total bogey.”
The extra trains will run until Sunday, July 17 with standard class tickets from Dundee costing £3, or £7 from Edinburgh.
David Horne, managing director at LNER, said: “This year’s event marks the 150th Open Championship at St Andrews, the home of golf.
“Many thousands of golf enthusiasts and their families travelling from around the world to attend this prestigious event.
“Our team has worked closely with Network Rail to arrange extra LNER services in addition to our full timetable to help those travelling to and from Leuchars for the occasion.
“Without a doubt these services will be very popular so anyone planning to travel on one of these trains will need to reserve a seat.”
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