WHEN the news came in at 4.45pm that Central Station had closed, I turned my computer off and slithered down Renfield Street.

But I never expected that my journey home to Mount Florida would take almost three hours.

At first I was hopeful.

When I arrived at the station, although it was full of freezing commuters, it still was open.

Then my heart sank as I saw almost nearly every train on the board was tagged ‘delayed’.

I hung around near the Christmas Tree for a while, still hoping to hop on a train south, before giving up and heading for the taxi rank on Gordon Street.

And there I waited – for nearly two hours in sub-zero temperatures.

Though my body was warm, my feet – well I can just about feel them now.

Meanwhile, my mum, en route to Glasgow for Christmas was also stuck.

Her train from London had ground to

a halt near Carstairs after the points had frozen.

Engineers fixed them after an hours’ wait – before the next set was also discovered to be iced up. Another hour.

“And they’re not even giving out coffee or food,” she complained.

I sympathised – but tried to remind her of the problems Eurostar passengers had endured – thankfully it wasn’t that bad – not yet anyway.

Finally I was at the front of the taxi queue, and I had found three poor fellow commuters – all heading south of the river – to share the fare with me.

It took another half an hour to get home along the jammed roads, and I had to walk the last bit as the taxi driver wouldn’t risk my snow-covered street.

Finally, at around 8.30pm I got home. And I’ve never been so glad (Mum finally made it through the door at 10pm).

The problem wasn’t just the fact that the trains were off, or that Glasgow’s transport system can’t cope with a bit of snow – but the complete lack of any travel information.

It’s also a problem which continued this morning.

ScotRail’s online Journeychecker gave no information if trains were running – saying simply ‘no report’ – whatever that means.

And screens at Mount Florida Station confirmed that the 6.33am to Central was on time.

But it never arrived.