ScotRail’s brand new fleet of electric trains have been taken out of service with immediate effect, after concerns over faulty brakes.
Transport bosses took the precaution after one of the class 385 trains suffered a brake fault on the line at Winchburgh yesterday.
A rail source told the Scotsman: “The train almost overshot Falkirk High, due to ‘very poor brakes’ after investigation by Hitachi.
“In the rear three carriages, a computer isolated all the brakes for no apparent reason, so only the front four carriages were braking.”
A number of problems have hit the Japanese-designed Hitachi trains running on the Glasgow-Edinburgh line since they were introduced two months ago.
ScotRail chief operating officer Angus Thom said the trains had been taken out of passenger service while the "technical" fault was investigated.
He said: “As a precaution, while Hitachi carries out further testing, we are restricting the use of class 385 trains.
“We are sorry to any customers whose journey was disrupted as a result of this.”
A ScotRail spokesman said:: “The train in question today is heading to [Edinburgh depot] Craigentinny for testing.
“It caused some delays and cancellations earlier in the day.
“There were a small number of cancellations in September caused by the fault.
“All trains have normal braking and secondary braking to keep people safe.”
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