ScotRail have confirmed significant disruption to trains will take place over the course of five days across the central belt.

Passengers travelling on Glasgow to Edinburgh routes are being told there will be no trains running through four major stations from the end of January into the start of February.

Services between Bathgate, Linlithgow, Falkirk and Edinburgh will have no trains from January 29 until February 2 as Network Rail teams ‘urgently’ need to prevent rockfall on the route.

A rock cutting above the railway near Ratho has been identified, with a specialist netting system to be installed in a bid to ‘improve safety’ for workers and customers.

ScotRail confirmed passengers will face “significant” disruption on the days services are off as they advised customers to only travel if it their journey is essential on the affected routes.

• Glasgow Queen Street to Edinburgh via Falkirk High services will terminate at Linlithgow with no service between Edinburgh Waverley and Linlithgow.
• Dunblane to Edinburgh services will terminate at Falkirk Grahamston, with no service between Edinburgh Waverley and Falkirk Grahamston.
• Edinburgh to Helensburgh/Milngavie services will terminate at Bathgate, with no service between Edinburgh Waverley and Bathgate.
• Services between Inverness and Edinburgh will run via Fife and will not call at Stirling station.
• LNER services between Edinburgh and Stirling and Inverness will be replaced by buses.

For passengers travelling between Linlithgow and Bathgate and Edinburgh, journeys could be more than 40 minutes longer via a rail replacement bus to Edinburgh Park and tram services to the city centre.

ScotRail say while direct Glasgow to Edinburgh services are unaffected, the trains may be “very busy”.

Alternative routes across the central belt are being advised such as Edinburgh to Glasgow via Shotts and Carstairs which will depart and terminate at Glasgow Central.

ScotRail expect limited additional capacity on these routes and customers are being advised journeys will be around 30 to 50 minutes longer compared to services via Falkirk High.