The A82 Fort William-Inverness road remains closed as the West Highland Line reopened after Storm Gerrit hit Scotland’s roads and railways, leaving thousands without power.
The Fort William-Inverness road remains blocked by trees between Spean Bridge and Invermoriston, but the section between Invergarry and Fort Augustus was cleared on Thursday afternoon.
Earlier, Scottish Citylink warned this closure will affect the 919 bus service and that it will not be able to service stops between Inverness and Spean Bridge due to a diversion via the A9.
Trains between Mallaig, Fort William, Oban and Glasgow Queen Street have resumed after Network Rail completed safety checks on the West Highland Line at around 3.30pm on Thursday.
The first services on this line are expected to depart for Mallaig and Oban at 6.23pm, while the next train from Mallaig to Fort William is scheduled to leave at 6.15pm.
Meanwhile, passengers in Oban will be able to catch the 6.11pm train to Glasgow Queen Street, with the ScotRail website advising that some later services are still facing disruption.
The Kyle of Lochalsh-Inverness line has also reopened, with services expected to resume on Friday morning.
Power outages are also still being experienced in Argyll, Lochaber and in the Killin area, with engineers hoping that power will be restored in some of these areas by 10pm.
The SSEN Powertrack site shows that electricity issues are currently affecting Fort William, and the Kilchrenan, Spean Bridge, Roybridge and Invergarry areas.
CalMac has also advised its customers that ferry services could be disrupted or cancelled at short notice on Thursday.
Significant alterations have been made to the following services:
- Sailings between Mallaig-Armadale (Skye) have been cancelled, but Mallaig-Small Isles services are still in operation with a slight delay.
- Sailings between Oban-Lismore have been cancelled for the remainder of Thursday.
- Sailings between Fionnphort-Iona have been cancelled for the remainder of Thursday.
- Sailings between Tayinloan-Gigha have been cancelled for the remainder of Thursday.
- Sailings between Tarbert-Portavadie have been cancelled for the remainder of Thursday.
- The sailing from Oban to Coll and Tiree will only make one stop at Coll on Thursday due to severe weather.
- An amended timetable is in operation on the Uig-Lochmaddy/Tarbert routes, with a delay of around two hours to scheduled services.
- The 10am sailing from Kennacraig to Port Ellen (Islay) has been diverted to Port Askaig, meaning that the 5pm Port Ellen-Kennacraig sailings will now leave from Port Askaig instead.
- Sailings between Gallanach-Kerrera will be “passenger only” on Thursday.
- The 7.20pm sailing from Brodick to Ardrossan has been cancelled and CalMac has warned that the 4:40pm and 6pm sailings from Brodick are at “heightened risk of cancellation.” The 7am sailing from Ardrossan on Friday has also been cancelled, with services expected to resume from Brodick at 8.20am.
More information is available from the CalMac website at https://www.calmac.co.uk/service-status