TRAIN passengers at some stations in Clydebank and North West Glasgow have been warned to expect travel disruption to some journeys when a major station partially closes for 20 weeks.

The Queen Street tunnel will shut from March 20 to August 8 for a £60m repair project and the works will impact on services to Yoker, Dalmuir and Anniesland.

The shutdown enables Network Rail to replace 1,800m of ageing concrete slab-track leading up to and inside the tunnel to allow faster, greener and longer trains to run on the network later this year.

The tunnel closure means trains which normally to and from Queen Street Station High Level will be diverted to the Queen Street Station Low Level or Glasgow Central Station - changing timetables, cutting some services and increasing some journey times.

ScotRail said the two trains per hour which normally run to and from Dalmuir via Yoker will now start and finish at Anderston.

Cumbernauld-Dalmuir services will be extended to Dumbarton Central but one of these per hour will terminate at Springburn, meaning the usual peak hour specials have been cancelled.

Trains on the Mallaig-Fort William-Oban-Glasgow route which pass through Dalmuir are expected to be delayed by up to 25 minutes.

Services from Anniesland to Glasgow via Maryhill will be cut to an hourly service from the current two trains per hour and on Sunday the service will start and finish from Ashfield, one stop away from Queen Street Station.

Passengers on the Anniesland services are advised to check if buses offer a quicker journey.

ScotRail also advised customers to be prepared for queues at Queen Street Station during the works and to set off earlier for journeys.

Phil Verster, managing director of the ScotRail Alliance, said: "Glasgow Queen Street is one of the busiest stations in Scotland. Every day, tens of thousands of people travel through the station on their way to work, to college or university or to visit friends.

"People will still be able to do that while the tunnel is closed - the railway is still very much open for business. However, they will see changes to their normal journey. We want to make sure that everyone understands what these change mean for them.

"That is why we are launching our biggest ever public information campaign. In the run up to the closure we will be speaking directly to our customers, to businesses, and to public bodies to give them the information they need and to answer any questions that they might have.

"Upgrading the tunnel will allow us to run faster, longer, greener trains in the future. This will mean more seats, shorter journey times and less impact on our environment. The long term benefits of this investment will be considerable, not just for our railway, but also for the country."

A webpage launched today week to give people information about the impact on their own journey customers are advised to check their journeys online.

Timetables will be available to download from February 20, and available to pick up at station booking offices from March 6.