With Scotland hosting festivals, cycling and football this weekend, ScotRail is reminding passengers that train services will be busy.

The operator reports that more than half a million people travelled on its services last weekend, with 197,000 people traveling on the Sunday, the highest number since 2015. Expecting similar numbers this weekend, ScotRail is encouraging people to plan their journey in advance, allow extra time at stations and buy their tickets through the ScotRail app as part of the mTickets system.

The 2023 UCI Cycling World Championships events have proved to be hugely popular with locals and visitors and reach their climax this weekend. The Mountain Bike Cross-Country Elite Olympic event takes place at Glentress Forest in the Scottish Borders, with the women’s road race on Sunday as the world’s best female riders take on the course from Loch Lomond to Glasgow .

ScotRail has been running more trains to support the Cycling World Championships, and is providing full travel advice in its website here.

Edinburgh’s festivals continue until the end of this month, and expect hundreds of thousands of people to visit the city this weekend to enjoy performances and events at more than 250 venues in and around the capital.

ScotRail will be running extra, and later, services, and festivalgoers can plan their journey and buy tickets using the ScotRail app or on ScotRail’s festival webpage.

The new men’s football season see a full programme of matches, including three top-flight games on Saturday and three on Sunday. ScotRail will have extra staff on duty, and is reminding everyone that carrying and consuming alcohol is not allowed on its trains and stations.

Phil Campbell, Customer Operations Director, said: “This will be another very busy weekend and we are again excited to be playing our part.

“We have made significant improvements to our services to support the events, running as many trains as possible, with extra seats to help where they are needed most.

“Last weekend was a record-breaking success with more than half a million journeys on our services, and we are looking forward to helping people get around for another exciting couple of days across the country.

“To make your travel experience as smooth as possible, I’d encourage to purchase your train tickets before boarding. The mTicket system, available on the ScotRail app, offers a convenient way to secure your tickets and download them straight to your mobile phone, avoiding any unnecessary queues on the day.”