NETWORK Rail has confirmed that the Airdrie-Bathgate line will open on Sunday as planned, but train frequencies will be lower than hoped and most of the intermediate stations will be served by rail replacement buses, because snow up to a metre deep is still blocking access to the platforms.

Ron McAulay, who is Network Rail director for Scotland, said: “Despite the unexpectedly early, prolonged and widespread severe weather, Network Rail is on schedule to open the new line between Airdrie and Bathgate. The line will provide infrastructure that will allow trains to run all the way from the west of Scotland through Glasgow Queen Street to Edinburgh Waverley, via Airdrie and Bathgate.

“However, the severe weather has prevented the completion of some minor station works and left the access roads and platform surfaces at some of the new intermediate stations on the route impassable.

“Consequently the new stations at Armadale, Caldercruix and Drumgelloch will not be brought into use right away but will be opened as soon as possible once the weather improves.”

Trains will run every hour on Sunday, but between Airdrie and Bathgate they will call only at Blackridge.

The three stations still affected by the recent bad weather will be served by rail replacement buses.

Network Rail said that ‘subject to weather conditions and operators’ commitments’, the special bus routes will be Armadale-Bathgate, Caldercruix-Blackridge and between the old Drumgelloch station and Airdrie.

The project had already been dogged by other problems.

There have been delays commissioning new Siemens trains intended for the Ayrshire Coast and Inverclyde routes, which had been ordered so that the existing trains there could be transferred to Airdrie-Bathgate.

And ScotRail spent several months earlier this year negotiating with the RMT, which had opposed plans to run trains on the line with drivers controlling the doors, which the union claimed was unsafe.

ScotRail denied this, pointing out that drivers already control the doors on around half its services, and that there would still be a second member of staff on board, to check tickets and help passengers. The dispute has now been settled, but services on the line are not expected to reach their planned frequency of four trains an hour until the spring.