A network outage has impacted ScotRail's ticketing system today (August 20).

The network outage has affected the company's ticketing and payment systems at major stations, including stations across Glasgow and Edinburgh.

The outage has meant that passengers have been unable to check online journey times, buy tickets, or pay by card at some ticket machines.

According to ScotRail, which is owned by the government-owned Scottish Rail Holdings, the problems were caused by an IT issue.

"We’re aware of an issue being experienced by our Internet service provider, which is affecting connectivity at a small number of locations across the country, including Edinburgh Waverley, Glasgow Central, and Glasgow Queen Street," said Alan Manclark, ScotRail’s head of IT.

“Our supplier is working hard to resolve the issue, and we’re sorry to customers for the inconvenience while we await a fix.”

Further details were not disclosed.

Passengers reported stations showing blank screens, while payment machines said "out of order."

The outage comes a week after ScotRail reported a 19 percent increase in passenger numbers compared to the same period last year, with close to two million passengers using the service during the week beginning August 8.