Major road, rail and air transport disruption as severe wintry weather continues to hit the Highlands
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Snow and ice is causing major transport disruption across the Highlands.
ScotRail is warning of a spate of delays and cancellations on its routes this morning and into the afternoon, while some bus services have been hit.
Inverness airport is reporting delays to incoming arrivals from Manchester, Gatwick and Amsterdam.
BEAR Scotland has gritters out in force across the region but drivers have been warned to avoid unnecessary journeys.
A spokesman said: “Snow fall has affected the A9 Inverness to Thurso, A99, A835, A87 Skye, and A82 outside Inverness through the night.
“We've had 16 winter vehicles dealing with affected areas. These will continue to be out during the morning.”
All train services between Inverness and Elgin have been cancelled due to the severe weather.
All of ScotRail’s services between Inverness and Edinburgh and Glasgow are facing delays.
A ScotRail spokesman said: “Because of adverse cold weather forecast, we will avoid crossing our trains at Carrbridge, Slochd, Tomatin and Moy which will result in trains being delayed by approximately 29 minutes between Carrbridge and Inverness and some services will be altered.”
A broken down train between Stirling and Larbert also caused additional delays to services on the main Highland line.
The 08:43 Inverness to Glasgow service will terminate in Perth, while the 09:42 Inverness to Glasgow run will start from Perth without visiting stations north.
The 12.07 Glasgow to Inverness service will also terminate at Perth.
All services between Inverness and Wick will be delayed, cancelled or revised, the train operator said., with the severe disruption expected to last until at least 2pm today.
This morning's 06:18 Wick to Inverness service started from Lairg, while the 08:02 Wick to Inverness service was cancelled due to a lack of train crew.
However, the 12:34 Wick to Inverness service has been reinstated and will run as scheduled.
The 7 am Inverness to Wick service will terminate at Lairg, while the 2pm North Line run between Inverness and Wick has been cancelled, again due to crew shortages.
This morning’s 06:11 service from Kyle to Inverness was cancelled due to a train fault.
Stagecoach’s bus service between Inverness and Skye has been suspended because of safety concerns.
The firm was also unable to run its 05:40 service 26 from Fortrose to Cromarty because of poor road conditions on the Black Isle.
That meant the return school service 126 from Cromarty to Fortrose Academy was cancelled “due to untreated road surfaces”.
All Caithness Stagecoach services are currently suspended.
The Met Office has issued an amber weather warning for today which is set to continue for the north-west Highlands and Islands with snowfalls likely.
All other parts of the Highlands remain subject to a yellow weather warning.
