A signalling fault near Muirhouse brought major disruption to the Glasgow Central train line on Thursday afternoon, forcing the suspension of services on the Cathcart Circle’s inner and outer loops and throwing evening commuter journeys into chaos.
ScotRail confirmed the fault at about 16:30, as passengers arriving into Glasgow Central faced delays across routes to Barrhead, East Kilbride, Kilmarnock and Carlisle via Dumfries. Services to Neilston and Newton were advised to run as booked, but travellers were warned to expect severe disruption.
Network Rail Scotland later deployed engineers to the trackside at Muirhouse to begin fault-finding procedures, with the team working to fix the problem ASAP, according to a Network Rail spokesperson. The fault hit at a time when the station was already carrying the weight of the evening rush, making the impact immediate for commuters trying to get home from central Glasgow.
The disruption also landed at a sensitive moment for Glasgow Central, Scotland’s busiest railway network, after its High Level platforms had only recently returned to full operation following a fire in an adjacent building on Union Street. Muirhouse is a vital junction on the southern approaches into the station, and when it falters, the effect spreads quickly across the wider network.
For passengers, the message was blunt: even where trains were still scheduled to run, the day’s service could not be trusted to stay on time. The next test is whether engineers can isolate the fault quickly enough to restore the routes that feed Glasgow Central before the disruption drags further into the night.
