A SECOND day of rail strike action was suspended last night after progress was made in negotiations over a working-hours dispute.
Talks continued late into the night, with the announcement of a suspension made at 11pm.
Network Rail and the Rail Maritime and Transport union (RMT) had met separately with officials from the conciliation service Acas to resolve the dispute over
changes to working rosters.
Some 450 signallers walked out for 24 hours until noon yesterday, forcing the cancellation of 40 per cent of First ScotRail services, including all trains north of Perth.
Similar disruption to tens of thousands of commuters had been expected today.
An RMT spokesman said: "Progress was made in talks and the RMT has now suspended action that was due to start (today] at noon. A full report will be considered by the (union's] executive later this week."
The spokesman added that the statement would disclose more details about the progress made in last night's talks.
If today's planned strike had gone ahead, Scotland's network would have been disrupted over four days this week.
The move appeared to catch Network Rail bosses by surprise last night. Earlier in the day, they had rejected attempts by the union to table a "new formula" at the talks, in an attempt to break the deadlock, as amounting to nothing new.
Responding to the move, a spokesman for Network Rail said: "This dispute is all about our ability to continue to provide a safe railway. We are pleased that strike action has been suspended and will continue to seek a negotiated resolution to this dispute. We will now work to restore train services to the travelling public as quickly as we can for tomorrow."
Despite concerns over the logistics of getting rolling stock into place, First Scotrail insisted it expected the interruption to be "minimal".
Yesterday, commuters between Edinburgh and Glasgow were affected by the strike, and many trains travelling north were replaced by buses to cities including Aberdeen and Inverness.
The RMT had hailed support for the strike as "rock solid", but Network Rail said 45 per cent of signal boxes were operating.
Meanwhile, the two sides became embroiled in a separate row yesterday over a union claim that there had been a "near miss" between two trains at Waverley station in Edinburgh, 90 minutes after the strike started.
Bob Crow, RMT general secretary, said a train was signalled to leave platform ten as another train was signalled into it.
The Office of Rail Regulation revealed it was investigating the alleged incident.
Network Rail said the incident was a routine manoeuvre and accused the RMT of scaremongering.
The full article contains 448 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
