SCOTRAIL have made an apology after being forced to cut the number of carriages on some Glasgow to Edinburgh trains by half - leading to fears of passenger overcrowding.
The late arrival of its class 385 electric fleet will leave the the Dutch operator of ScotRail short because the lease on four of its present trains expires in weeks.
It means that peak-hour trains, which normally operated with six carriages, would only have three or four.
The train operator said it expects up to 12 trains a day to run with fewer carriages than normal - equivalent to the loss of around 1500 seats a day.
In an attempt to compensate, ScotRail has announced that from Monday it will cut fares by half on the secondary Glasgow to Edinburgh route via Bathgate and Airdrie route, from £26 to £13.
The disruption is expect to last from February 26 to May 20. A ScotRail spokesman said: “As we prepare for our brand new Hitachi class 385 trains, we are making some changes to our Edinburgh-Glasgow via Falkirk High service.
“This will result in a small number of services having a reduced number of seats. “Customers should plan their journey in advance.
“We are sorry for any inconvenience this will cause customers.
“Customers travelling between Glasgow Queen Street and Edinburgh via Airdrie will be able to benefit from a reduced return fare of £13 - almost half the current price.”
The spokesman also stressed that some services on the main line were run by class 380 electric trains, which operated with seven carriages at peak hours.
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