THE "vast majority" of Scotland's train services will be cancelled for two days next week as a result of the first national rail strike in more than 20 years.

ScotRail has urged passengers to plans ahead as it warned that only a handful of services in the Central Belt will be running on Monday and Tuesday if industrial action over pay by RMT members goes ahead.

Disruption will affect lines across the entire UK as Network Rail employees stage a 24-hour walkout on the bank holiday Monday followed by a work-to-rule on Tuesday.

On Monday, only nine rail services are likely to run in the whole of Scotland, but they will operate at a reduced frequency and only between 7.15am and 5.45pm.

Commuters travelling between Glasgow and Edinburgh on Monday and Tuesday will only be able to use the Edinburgh-Glasgow Queen Street shuttle service, via Falkirk High.

ScotRail today released details of the limited services it expects to be able to run.

They are:

MONDAY 25 MAY ONLY

Glasgow Central - Paisley Gilmour Street

Glasgow Central - Neilston via Queens Park

Glasgow Central - Newton via Maxwell Park

MONDAY 25 & TUESDAY 26 MAY

Edinburgh - Glasgow via Falkirk High

Edinburgh - Kirkcaldy - Glenrothes

Edinburgh - Cowdenbeath - Glenrothes

Glasgow Central - East Kilbride

Glasgow Queen St (High Level) - Anniesland

Glasgow Queen St (Low Level) - Cumbernauld

ScotRail has launched a dedicated web page www.scotrail.co.uk/strike where they will be posting timetables for the routes that will be running during the strike.

Phil Verster, managing director of the ScotRail Alliance, an umbrella body for ScotRail and Network Rail, said: "If this UK-wide industrial action goes ahead as planned, the impact on customers is going to be severe. For the vast majority of people in Scotland, there will be no train service at all on these two days.

"We will only be able to run a handful of services, and those that we are able to run will operate on a reduced service. Those services will be much busier than usual, so if customers are able to make other arrangements, I would kindly ask them to please do so.

"We have released this information early because it is our priority to make sure that our customers have enough time to make decisions about their journey."