STRIKE action is set to affect Ayrshire rail services on the night before and the day after a scheduled Network Rail strike.

It was confirmed last week that Network Rail strike action will take place on Wednesday, July 27, Thursday, August 18, and Saturday, August 20, as a result of a pay dispute.

Many of the Network Rail staff that are due to take part in the planned industrial action occupy safety-critical roles and, as such, it will not be possible for ScotRail to run the vast majority of services.

There will be no trains on any routes in Ayrshire on Wednesday as a result of the strike action.

However, disruption to ScotRail services will not be confined to the days of strike action themselves but will also affect the day before, Tuesday, July 26, and the days following them – Thursday, July 28, Friday, August 19, and Sunday, August 21.

On Tuesday, July 26, there will be a small number of trains cancelled.

This is to allow trains to be moved into the right position, as on most routes, trains cannot be moved again until 07.15 on Thursday, 28 July.

ScotRail says that by taking action on the Tuesday evening, it will help to ensure that as many passenger trains can operate on Thursday morning.

On the days following strike action, there will be disruption caused by the reopening of signal boxes at different times across the country.

Signal boxes are key pieces of infrastructure located across the rail network that control train movements.

Their use is critical to ensure that the railway can operate safely.

While many workstations at the larger signalling centres will be able to operate from 07.15, this will not be the case for them all or for manual boxes elsewhere, and it may well be later in the day before many routes are able to operate as normal.

Affected services in Ayrshire on Tuesday and Thursday of this week are as follows.

Tuesday, July 26

2113 Glasgow Central-Dumfries – terminates at Kilmarnock at 2157, will not serve Auchinleck, New Cumnock, Kirkconnel or Sanquhar

Thursday, July 28

0513, 0540, 0615, 0650 and 0703 Ayr-Glasgow Central – cancelled

0602, 0630, 0700, 0731, 0802 and 0830 Glasgow Central-Ayr – cancelled

0615 Glasgow Central-Largs – cancelled

0615 Ayr-Girvan - cancelled

0634 Auchinleck-Glasgow Central – cancelled

0645 Glasgow Central-Ardrossan Harbour – cancelled

0700 Glasgow Central-Ayr – cancelled

0646 Girvan-Ayr - cancelled

0718 Ayr-Glasgow Central – departs at 0722

0819 Ardrossan Harbour-Glasgow Central – starts from Ardrossan Town at 0821

0707 Glasgow Central-Carlisle – starts from Dumfries at 0901, will not serve stations north of Dumfries

Customers are advised to check the ScotRail app or visit scotrail.co.uk for the latest information before travelling.

On Wednesday a skeleton service will operate on routes linking Glasgow and Lanarkshire, and Glasgow and Edinburgh, with no service on any other route.

David Simpson, ScotRail's service delivery director, said: “It is very unfortunate to see such widespread disruption across the whole of the Great Britain rail network and we know this will be frustrating for ScotRail customers.

“Regrettably, this strike action by RMT members of Network Rail means that we will not be able to operate the vast majority of our services during the period of strike action.

"Customers should expect significant disruption to services on strike days, as well as the following day.

“On the five routes where we are able to operate a very limited service on strike days, we’re advising customers to seek alternative means of transport and to only travel if they really need to.”