Snow and ice causing travel chaos

School signLess than half all Scotland’s schools opened last week
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About 90% of Scotland’s schools are hoping to reopen after being closed for a week due to snow.

A relatively dry weekend allowed local authorities to clear roads, though travel disruption was still expected.

Heavy snow is falling in Dundee, Perth, Stirling, Falkirk and parts of Fife.

There are blizzard conditions on the A9 between Perth and Dunblane. The road is down to one lane in places. The M80 is also badly affected through Stirling.

The M90 between Perth and Fife has a covering of snow and traffic is moving very slowly.

Scotrail are now running trains between Aberdeen and Inverness, and from Glasgow and Edinburgh to Aberdeen and Inverness.

Buses are replacing trains between Dundee and Edinburgh and Perth and Edinburgh.

There are no trains between Glasgow and Dunblane or on the far north line.

Edinburgh to Glasgow Queen Street services are reduced to half hourly.

Inverness and Wick airports are closed.

Grampian Police said drifting snow was affecting roads between Fochabers and Elgin; Inverurie and Huntly; Huntly and Banff; and MacDuff to New Pitsligo. Some higher routes were closed.

Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire councils said school transport would been affected, with some routes cancelled and others changed.

Education Secretary Michael Russell said: “We have experienced the worst snowfall at this time of year since 1965.

“Despite the best efforts of local authorities and school staff, road closures and hazardous conditions made school closures unavoidable in many parts of the country.”

At the height of last week’s disruption less than half of Scotland’s schools opened.

Mr Russell added: “We do not expect any blanket school closures and many local authorities which experienced significant disruption last week are hoping to open most, if not all, schools in their area.”

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Transport Minister Stewart Stevenson said transport staff across the country were working round the clock to keep networks open.

“I am pleased our national roads network is almost entirely reopen again,” he said.

“We have adequate salt supplies to see us through further bad weather, currently four times more than at the worst time in the winter last year and more deliveries due in the next few weeks.

“We also have a contingency supply ready for use in an emergency.”

While schools are set to reopen and transport links have been restored, forecasters are warning of more bad weather to come.

Forecasters warned that the wintry weather would push into Dumfries and Galloway and the Borders during Monday afternoon.

During Monday night, wintry showers will become confined to the Northern Isles, Northwest Highlands and Galloway.

Elsewhere, it will be dry, clear and very cold with a widespread frost, severe in places.

There will be a risk of icy roads once again, and patches of freezing fog, as temperatures dip to -6C in the towns and cities, and as low as -15C in the Central Highlands.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

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