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Thursday 25 Aug 2016

Electrification work signals timetable changes for Central Scotland

Region & Route:

Scotland’s Railway: Scotland

Work to electrify the railway across Central Scotland will mean timetable changes on some routes from Sunday, September 4, as we complete the electrification of the main Edinburgh-Glasgow line.

Engineers will be working to install stanchions and run power cables on the Edinburgh-Glasgow, via Falkirk High, line as part of the Edinburgh-Glasgow Improvement Programme (EGIP).

Electrification will help to transform journeys on Scotland’s railway delivering more seats on new faster, longer, greener trains on the Edinburgh Waverley-Glasgow Queen Street high level line from summer 2017.

To deliver this work by next summer, weekday evening and weekend service alterations will be in place between September 4, 2016, and March 31, 2017 on some routes.

The routes affected by timetable changes are:

Edinburgh – Glasgow via Falkirk High

Perth / Dunblane / Stirling – Edinburgh

Inverness/Aberdeen/Dundee/Alloa – Glasgow

Trains on some routes will start later on Sunday mornings, and will only operate on part of the route between Sunday and Thursday evenings, after approx. 8.30pm.  Buses will replace trains on portions of each route at these times.

Direct travel between Edinburgh and Glasgow will be maintained via the Airdrie-Bathgate line and no work is planned on the main line on Friday or Saturday nights.

These service alterations will also be suspended over the Christmas period – from December 8 to January 7.

David Dickson, ScotRail Alliance infrastructure director, said: “Central Belt electrification will allow us to run faster, longer, greener trains and cut journey times while increasing the number of seats available. The work we are delivering represents a huge investment in Scotland’s railway that will help transform travel on our network.

“We understand the inconvenience this work will cause our customers and every effort has been made to minimise disruption as much as we possibly can. We are urging people to check their journey now and certainly before they set off. All of the information that people will need to plan their journey during these improvement works is already available on the ScotRail app and website. We will of course have extra staff on hand at key stations to assist customers.”

Details of the changes from 4 September can be found at www.scotrail.co.uk/electrification.