DIRECT train services between Ayr and Glasgow have resumed nine months after their enforced suspension due to the devastating fire at the former Station Hotel building.

The first ScotRail train to Glasgow Central since the blaze departed Ayr at 6.35am on Monday, June 17, with a half-hourly service due to operate from 8.05am onwards, leaving Ayr at 05 and 35 minutes past each hour.

The first service from Glasgow to Ayr left Glasgow Central at 7am on Monday.

However, trains between Ayr and Kilmarnock, and between Ayr, Girvan and Stranraer, are still replaced by buses, with ScotRail saying it hopes to have those services restored by mid July.

Services to and from Ayr were suspended as soon as the fire in the derelict building was discovered in the early evening of September 25, 2023.

Trains were only able to run between Glasgow and Prestwick, with replacement buses operating between Ayr and Prestwick Town until December, when ScotRail introduced a shuttle train service using the platform at Ayr station located furthest away from the building. 

That shuttle train was withdrawn in early June so that Network Rail and ScotRail could complete work on getting the track and other infrastructure back into a useable condition.

South Ayrshire Council is due to complete safety works on the former hotel building on Monday.

Most of the building has been demolished on safety grounds, with only a small section of the northern wing still remaining.