Snow falls across large swathes of Scotland
SCOTLAND endured whiteout chaos on the roads, rail and in education yesterday as snow driven from Canada slammed into the morning rush hour. The north and west faced the worst and weather men say we can expect more snow this morning, although it will turn to rain before dying out by lunchtime as it moves east.
Yesterday, 55 schools and nurseries were closed in the Highlands, affecting more than 2000 pupils as the Met Office recorded snowfall of three inches (7.6cm) at Tulloch Bridge, near Fort William.
A lorry rammed into a railway bridge between Achnasheen and Achnashellach in Wester Ross, leading to the closure of the Inverness to Kyle of Lochalsh railway line.
A signal fault at Elgin disrupted rail services on the Inverness to Aberdeen route between 6.30am and 8.30am, while a double-decker bus went off the road into a ditch at Stepps in Lanarkshire.
The driver was uninjured and there were no passengers on board.
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The A9 suffered a series of closures due to accidents. The major north-south route was shut southbound at Thurso, near to the B874, and in both directions further south at Carrbridge.
As morning rush hour got underway, Traffic Scotland tweeted that the M77 in Ayrshire was looking “extremely hazardous”, with images from the traffic camera at the Galston turn-off blocked by blizzards.
A crash also blocked one southbound lane of the M80 in Stirlingshire, just after Bannockburn.
The imminent arrival of winds gusting to 40mph forced ferry operator CalMac to postpone or re-schedule departures on the Oban to Castlebay on Barra route, Uig on Skye to Lochmaddy on North Uist, as well as Mallaig to Lochboisdale and Oban.
