The Presiding Officer:

There are a number of supplementary questions.

This week has proven to be quite a miserable one for rail travellers in Scotland. A landslip has closed the Glasgow to Edinburgh line; the west Highland line was closed after a derailment; landslides are affecting cross-country services near Kilmarnock; and flooding and debris are causing problems right across the network. All of that is causing disruption to tens of thousands of commuters.

We cannot control the weather, but is the First Minister confident that our rail network was adequately winter-proofed and ready for the adverse weather? Can she provide an update to Parliament on when those services will be operational again?

It has been an incredibly difficult week for those who work on our railways and for those who travel on them. The member went through some of the reasons for that, which are mainly weather related. That is why it is such a tribute to those who work on our railways that, as of 8.30 this morning, performance across the Scottish network—with the exception of the Edinburgh to Glasgow line, which I will come on to in a second—against the performance measure was 91 per cent. That is good performance, and those who have delivered it deserve credit from us.

Of course there have been challenges caused by the weather, the most serious and significant of which is the closure of the Edinburgh to Glasgow railway line because of the landslip that occurred in a cutting near the village of Philpstoun, which was caused by very heavy rainfall at around noon yesterday. A work plan has been agreed and implemented for the reinstatement of the railway. That is planned to be completed this afternoon but, as members will understand, that will be subject to an inspection of the signalling cables that were buried in the landslip.

These are difficult circumstances for passengers. I thank the travelling public for the patience that they display. I deeply regret it when inconvenience is caused, but I am sure that most reasonable people know that some of these weather-related incidents cannot be avoided. Our job is to ensure that things get back on track as quickly as possible, and that is exactly what is happening.