A MAJOR signalling fault near one of Glasgow's busiest train stations caused chaos for morning commuters today.
The defect near Glasgow Queen Street, which was eventually located and fixed around noon, caused disruption to some of ScotRail's busiest passenger services.
The fault meant only one of the two lines through Queen Street Tunnel could be used for services during the morning peak.
Knock-on delays and disruption are continuing, but services are expected to return to normal in time for the evening rush-hour.
A spokeswoman for the ScotRail Alliance said: “Repairs were completed at noon and we are now working to restore services to normal over the course of this afternoon.
“We apologise to customers affected by this fault.”
CLEARED: Disruption caused by fault with signalling system at #GlasgowQueenSt has now ended. All services no longer affected. ^L
— ScotRail (@ScotRail) 15 March 2016
Services Glasgow Queen Street and Edinburgh, via Falkirk High, had been suspended with replacement shuttle buses in use after the fault was detected at 8am.
It also led to the suspension of trains on the Glasgow Queen Street-Anniesland and Glasgow Queen Street-Falkirk Grahamston/Cumbernauld routes.
The signalling fault has coincided with major disruption to services on the Edinburgh/Fife Circle route after a person was struck by a train at Dalmeny.
The problem at Glasgow Queen Street was caused by two track circuit failures on the Cowlairs South junction, to the north of the city.
Network Rail engineers were on the scene within minutes, but the problem proved more complex than normal to resolve because it occurred at an area where a number of tracks intersect.
A spokesman for Network Rail, the body responsible for railway infrastructure, said: "Signalling faults are usually pretty easy to resolve, but the location of this one makes it more difficult to deal with.
"We have had engineers on the site since 8am and they are still there working as fast as they can to find the problem and fix it, but when you have a few tracks intersecting it makes it more difficult to find the root cause."
Track circuits are part of the railway's signalling system which enables Network Rail to pinpoint exactly where trains are.
When they fail, signallers are effectively "blinded" and must revert to operating the system manually.
Meanwhile, rush-hour passengers at Edinburgh Haymarket have also faced lengthy queues after the station was reduced to just two working ticket machines.
Only two functioning ticket machines at @ScotRail #Haymarket this morning. Huge queues. Train missed.
— Matt McDonagh (@MattJMcDonagh) 15 March 2016
A spokeswoman for ScotRail confirmed a fault with the ticket machines.
She said: “We apologise to customers whose journeys were delayed. The fault has been reported and will be fixed as soon as possible.”
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