HELENSBURGH commuters have reacted furiously after thousands of people were hit by major disruption to train and road transport on Wednesday.

ScotRail cancelled all services on the Glasgow-Helensburgh Central and Glasgow-Balloch lines, as well as on several other routes, from mid-afternoon because of a signalling fault near Yoker.

The disruption lasted throughout the evening rush hour and beyond.

ScotRail introduced shuttle services between Helensburgh and Dumbarton, and between Balloch and Dumbarton, from around 10pm, but advised people travelling between Helensburgh and locations east of Dumbarton to make their own alternative arrangements if possible.

Although the fault was eventually fixed, disruption continued into Thursday morning; because of trains left out of position by Wednesday's failure, the 6.51am Dalmuir-Helensburgh train on Thursday was cancelled, and the 6.56am train from Helensburgh to Edinburgh started from Hyndland and had only half the usual number of carriages.

ScotRail advised that several other trains on the Helensburgh line on Thursday would have three coaches instead of six as a result of Wednesday's disruption.

People affected by Wednesday's cancellations were advised to seek out alternative bus routes where available – though these, too, were disrupted because of road closures in Glasgow city centre, caused by the Glasgow 2018 cycling time trial event.

Among the angry travellers affected by the disruption was Lindsay Thornton, who commented on the Advertiser's Facebook page: "It took me from 3pm until 4pm to get to the right bus stop (sent to Buchanan, Argyle St, then Central).

"Finally got on a very over crowded bus and arrived in Helensburgh at 17.45. Took the shine off an amazing day with my daughters. Idiots, not one of them gave correct information."

Also on the Advertiser's Facebook page, Annette Rauf said: "It started with 12:41 train from Dumbarton Central just past Yoker and we were taken to Garscadden after an hour and just left there.

"I didn’t wait for ScotRail to sort us out. I and many others walked towards Scotstoun to catch buses and then got caught up in the travel restrictions for the cycling."

And Helen Butler said: "Complete nightmare. Scotrail need to be more proactive at organising courtesy buses!"

ScotRail said it was "sorry for the disruption" and advised anyone delayed by 30 minutes or more to retain their tickets in order to claim compensation.