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Passengers injured after DMU hits fallen tree

The 06.47 Inverness-Edinburgh service had around 45 passengers on it at the time of the incident.
    The two passengers sustained minor injuries after a branch of the tree broke both panes of glass in the double-glazed unit. Unit No. 170453 suffered front end damage including a smashed driver’s windscreen.
    All of units passengers were de-trained at Dunkeld and taken forward by road transport
   David Simpson, Network Rail’s route managing director for Scotland said that after the storms of the previous day, staff had worked overnight to ensure services could run as normal on Thursday. On one stretch of line in Fife, 900 fallen trees were removed along a 400 yard stretch of railway line.
   Mr Simpson added: "The extent of damage across the whole network, in terms of trees, overhead cable damage, damage along sea walls and so forth, we've not seen that for many, many years.".
   All over the country, Network Rail teams have been out with chainsaws to deal with trees fouling the running lines.
   RM reader Neil Parsonson was a passenger on an Oban-Glasgow service on January 2 that struck a tree between Dalmally and Tyndrum Lower, suffering power unit damage, but limped to Crianlarich and was joined to Mallaig-Glasgow service and met by fitters at Queen Street. Mr Parsonson’s flight to Bristol was also cancelled due to the weather.
   In a separate incident in Cambridgeshire, two passengers on a Class 365 unit received minor injuries after a window was smashed by a fallen cable on a service between Ely and Littleport
   Elsewhere obstructions on the line have been reported at Theftford, and Sutton Coldfield, with overhead wire problems prevalent in many parts of the country.
• A tree on the Shirley-Birmingham Snow Hill line at Wood End on January 5 was removed by the driver and passengers before it could continue.