Please note that there are strikes by rail personnel that will affect travel in Scotland on the following dates:
Sat Oct 1
Wed Oct 5
Sat Oct 8
Mon Oct 10
While most of the dates are not strikes by the staff of ScotRail, that dorsn’t really matter too much — as it’s the folks who run the signaling and control the rails that will be striking, so ScotRail won’t be able to operate normally.
October 10th is a strike by RMT union members of ScotRail itself.
See the ScotRail Industrial Action page for more information (obviously currently they have the most information for the earlier dates.The Oct 10 date only came out in the press this morning Europe time.)
https://www.scotrail.co.uk/plan-your-journey/passenger-disruption/industrial-action
Trainline has noted that you will need to be wary not only if your train travel is schedule for one of these dates, but also if you are traveling the evening prior or the morning after any of these dates, as it will take workers sometime to shut down and reopen the signal boxes.
I myself have given in and rented a car since I have tickets for the 6th and 9th. I’ll wait for ScotRail/Trainline to cancel on me, or cancel my car if by some miracle i think i can take the train out to the Highlands and back.