SNOW and ice are causing increasing disruption to ScotRail services, while East Coast has introduced an emergency timetable because of snow in the Scottish borders and east of England.

A number of ScotRail routes in the south of the country have no trains this morning, including Dalmuir–Springburn, Milngavie–High Street [Glasgow] and Dalmuir–Larkhall. Problems are reported on the Ayrshire Coast too, with no trains expected to serve Gourock after 08.15. The Newcraighall–Cowdenbeath service has been curtailed to run between Newcraighall and Edinburgh only, and there are also no trains between Edinburgh and Dunbar. 

The Scottish problems are also disrupting East Coast services, which have been hit by bad weather in north east England as well as Scotland.

East Coast services between Glasgow and Edinburgh may be very limited, the company has warned, and its trains may not be able to call at Dunbar.

There are also numerous cancellations between London and Leeds.

Further south, although some areas have yet to see much snow, temperatures have been plummeting, with track temperatures as low as minus 6 Celsius in parts of southern England.

Network Rail has been deploying additional resources to combat the weather this winter, including 3,000 new conductor rail heaters in Kent.

The forecasters are predicting that conditions will worsen over the next couple of days, with the snow expected to push south to affect most of England and Wales by Tuesday morning.