Subway staff in Glasgow have been told that extra services will be running this weekend amid fears fans will flout a stay-at-home message if the Old Firm match goes ahead.
Workers are said to have been advised that additional trains would be operating for 'an event' at Ibrox.
The Scottish Government has not yet confirmed if Sunday's match will be permitted to take place at Parkhead, following the illegal, mass gathering of fans in George Square after Rangers clinched the league title which is said to have led to an £11,000 damage bill and a rise in Covid-19 cases.
Rangers said it has held talks with fans and "key influencers" and has been assured there will no problems ahead of Sunday's Old Firm match at Celtic Park.
READ MORE: Rangers fans sent bill for George Square damage after league win gathering
Both clubs met officials from the Scottish Government, Police Scotland and Glasgow City Council last week where they re-affirmed their commitment to press a "stay at home" message to ensure the match goes ahead without problems.
However SPT is said to have received police intelligence that suggests some fans will ignore the continuing restrictions.
A spokeswoman for SPT said a more frequent, weekday level of service would operate on Sunday if the game is permitted, to maintain social distancing requirements.
British Transport Police will be patrolling stations and passengers will be asked to state the purpose of their journey, a policy which was in operation during the last Old Firm game on January 2, which ended in a 1-0 win for Rangers.
Scotland's Chief Medical Officer Gregor Smith said yesterday that some fans who tested positive for Covid had admitted to contact tracers they were at the George Square rally or held house parties, which are also illegal under coronavirus restrictions.
About 30,000 swabs were taken at testing centres over the past three days, including 12,000 on Saturday alone, the highest since January.
An SPT spokeswoman said: “Working with BTP and Police Scotland, we have been advised to be prepared for possible extra traffic on the Subway on Sunday.
"While we advise all passengers not to travel unless their journey is essential, we must be prepared that should there be extra passengers, we need to run extra trains to keep all passengers moving and to be able to offer safe physical distancing on trains."
Assistant Chief Constable Bernard Higgins said: “It is vitally important that people stay at home and do not attend Celtic Park, Ibrox or any other locations on Sunday, 21 March.
"Both clubs have already urged their fans to take personal responsibility to do the right thing and stay at home to stop the virus from spreading. Doing otherwise is irresponsible and puts the health of the public and our officers at risk.
"We will do everything we can to continue to reinforce this message."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel