340,000 passengers used Edinburgh Waverley on first weekend of festivals

More than 340,000 people used Edinburgh's main train station during the first weekend of this year's festivals.

There was a surge in visitors through Waverley between Friday and Sunday, as the international festival and the Fringe got under way.

The station sees an average of 70,000 passengers a day, meaning the weekend saw an increase of more than 43,000 daily.

ScotRail Alliance operations director Perry Ramsey said: Once again Edinburgh's festival season proves to be a huge draw for visitors coming to enjoy the events.

We're proud to play our part in getting people to and from Edinburgh. Where possible, we've cut back on any non-essential train engineering or maintenance so that we have the maximum number of carriages available for use over this busiest weekend.

We know that our trains will be very busy, so we are encouraging all customers to plan their journeys in advance by visiting scotrail.co.uk, downloading the ScotRail app, or buying a ticket at the station before boarding the train.

We want everyone to enjoy their day, and smooth and safe travel to and from Edinburgh is all part of that.''

The operator has also put on more late night trains between Waverley and Glasgow Queen Street each day.

It is expected this coming weekend will be the busiest of the festival period, with ScotRail urging travellers to plan their journeys in advance