BROKEN rails, leaves on the line and overgrown trees were responsible for hundreds of train delays and cancellations in Scotland last year.

More than 61,500 timetabled services were either late, cancelled or partially cancelled - equivalent to almost nine in every hundred trains.

The figure includes ScotRail services and all cross-Border trains.

Explanations range from "severe weather", signalling problems and points failures to "vegetation management failure" - that is, overgrown trees and bushes obscuring signal signs or interfering with power lines.

The data indicates that of the 710,052 services timetabled in Scotland last year, 61,508 were either late, cancelled or partially cancelled - equivalent to 8.7 per cent of all services.

A late-running service is categorised as one delayed by five minutes or more beyond its scheduled arrival time.

Half of all delays and cancellations (51 per cent) related to Network Rail issues, such as power line failures, signalling faults and damage to the tracks.

Meanwhile, around 37 per cent of all service disruptions were blamed on problems associated with ScotRail, such as train breakdowns or staff shortages.

The remainder of delays and cancellations were tied to cross-Border operators, such as Virgin Trains and CrossCountry, or "other" factors.

The most common reason for a train being cancelled in Scotland last year was severe weather, which affected more than 2000 passenger services.

Problems with rolling stock, such as train breakdowns or faults accounted for 1,977 cancellations, while crew shortages caused by staff sickness absence, or industrial action was blamed for 1,884 cancellations.

Power cuts on overhead lines, points failures, and signalling faults were the most common cause of overall service disruption, however. More than 9,600 (16 per cent) delays and cancellations were due to one of these factors.

However, the number of signalling faults disrupting train services in Scotland has also fallen to its lowest level in a decade.

In 2006, when current records began, there were almost 8,400 service-affecting signalling faults a year in Scotland. Network Rail upgrades had driven these down to an all-time low of 1,932 by 2014, and it looks set to be even lower in 2015 with just 865 incidents recorded by late October.

The data also highlights some of the more unusual causes for disruption to rail services across Scotland, including six security alerts and 31 instances where train wheels have slipped off the tracks due to a build up of wet leaves on the line.

On 227 occasions a service was delayed or cancelled by broken rails, and there were 82 cases of disruption caused by theft or vandalism - such as metal thieves stealing cables.

There were also 43 "vegetation management failures", 60 level crossing failures, and 197 fatality and trespass incidents.

David Sidebottom, passenger director at the independent watchdog Transport Focus, said: “Delays are annoying and frustrating for passengers whenever they happen. It is essential that the industry works hard to be on hand to help passengers when services are disrupted.

“Now that passengers are paying more than ever before, it is absolutely critical that train companies and Network Rail delivers a more reliable day-to-day railway and are made aware of their rights to a refund or compensation.”

A spokesman for Network Rail said Scotland was one of the best performing region's on the rail network with more than 90 per cent of trains arriving on time.

"The Scotland route is running more services and carrying more passengers now than ever before and, in Glasgow’s suburban network, has some of the busiest lines in the UK outside London.

“We invest significant resources each year in our infrastructure to try to reduce faults and as much as possible using new remote monitoring technologies and our fleet of track measurement trains to better target our maintenance and refurbishment works.”