UNION leaders are seeking assurances that safety on trains will not be compromised during the “five days of Christmas”.
Train operators have warned of a probable surge in demand now that pandemic travel restrictions have been lifted for the festive period to allow people to visit loved ones from December 23-27.
A spokesperson for the rail workers’ union RMT said there were concerns over safety for both the travelling public and workers.
He said negotiations were ongoing with all the train operators to ensure a safe environment for both workers and travellers.
“There is a danger that services may become stretched because of the limited number of services that will be running and also the engineering works during that window,” he said.
“It is going to be a balancing act really but we are in discussion with all the train companies around what we would consider to be safe operational measures and hope to be able to conclude agreements with them.”
It comes as Scotland recorded a further 44 coronavirus deaths over the previous 24 hours.
There have been 788 new cases of Covid-19 reported, with the daily test positivity rate at 4.4%, up from 4% on Friday, figures released on Saturday show.
Since the start of the outbreak, 3720 people have died after testing positive for the virus within the previous 28 days.
There were 1077 people in hospital on Friday, down from 1099 the previous day. Of these 77 were in intensive care, down from 80.
With train companies warning that services were likely to be “exceptionally busy”, the Scottish Greens have now urged the public not to travel if possible.
Transport spokesperson John Finnie said: “The lifting of travel restrictions is designed to allow families to expand their bubble and is not intended to encourage the mass transit of people across the UK.
“People should not be travelling from areas which have a high infection rate to places which have a low infection rate because it risks bringing the virus into these areas.”
LNER, which operates trains from London to Edinburgh on the East Coast line, said it expected tickets to sell out quickly and has warned travellers they should book early.
“To keep customers safe whilst travelling, record levels of enhanced cleaning is undertaken on board and at our stations,” said a spokesperson.
A spokesperson for Avanti West Coast which runs trains from London to Glasgow said: “We expect services to be busier over the Christmas period in comparison to the last couple of months.”
ScotRail said the company was using a targeted approach to allow customers to travel safely.
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