Smoky Scotrail train sets off Queen Street fire alarm
Last updated 18th Jun 2019
Glasgow Queen Street had to be evacuated after thick smoke was seen billowing from one of Scotrail's High Speed Trains.
The fire service was called at around 7.40am when the alarm was raised.
Passengers posted pictures and videos on social media showing the thick black smoke rising from the exhausts of the power car.
Scotrail tweeted that the fire alarm was sounding and that trains would not operate from the station.
They added: "Until the fire alarm has been reset we are unable to operate trains to/from the station, services won't call at Queen Street low level.''
Scotrail later said the "broken-down train'' was being moved to the depot at Eastfield and services were returning to normal.
The fire service said it was a false alarm with good intent.
The train involved is one of the former InterCity 125's brought in by Abellio to increase capacity on the routes from Glasgow to Aberdeen and Inverness.
It is one of what Scotrail refer to as 'Classic' sets which has yet to go through the extensive refurbishment programme to upgrade the carriages with new doors and toilets, among other improvements, for the InterCity7 services.
Scotrail's Engineering Director, Syeda Ghufran, told Clyde News she did not believe the incident was linked to the train being one of the unrefurbished examples:
"At this stage we don't know what caused the excessive smoke from the engine. The train is now under investigation and as soon as we know the root cause we will implement a fix to make sure it doesn't happen again.
"We have got a very robust engine maintainence programme whereby we renew engines and fit overhauled ones depending on the number of engine hours and mileage it's accumulated."
However, RMT General Secretary Mick Cash, disagreed, saying:
“It raises serious questions about the current state of Scotland’s railways when we are being told that we have the “best railway Scotland has ever had”. That claim is clearly nonsense.
“This morning we had a vintage HST train pouring out thick black smoke forcing the closure of one of Scotland’s busiest train stations.
“We are supposed to be spending millions of pounds on investment in our railway - yet we end up using clapped out, decommissioned Inter-City trains that are 50 years old and that are in no way environmentally friendly or fit for purpose."