Media centre

Monday 13 Dec 2010

NEW £300M RAIL LINK ENTERS SERVICE ON TIME DESPITE ARCTIC WINTER

Region & Route:

Scotland’s Railway: Scotland

• New line re-establishes fourth direct rail route between Edinburgh and Glasgow after gap of over 50 years

The new £300m* Airdrie-Bathgate Rail Link entered service as planned on Sunday (December 12).

Completed on time and to budget by Network Rail, the new route allows passengers to travel direct from Helensburgh and Milngavie, in the west, to Bathgate and Edinburgh in the east.

Funded by the Scottish Government, the line re-establishes a direct link lost in the 1950s and increases the range of options available for travel between Scotland’s two main cities.

Ron McAulay, Network Rail Director Scotland, said: “Completing this line in just four years was a major engineering and project management challenge. To have delivered the railway on time and on budget is a testament to the skill and determination of our team.

 “The line is expected to open up new educational and economic opportunities for those living on the line of route, widen the labour pool available to employers and also offer a greener alternative to the daily car commute on the M8.”

Due to the continuing impact of the arctic conditions gripping the Central Belt, the link initially opened as a limited-stop service between Airdrie and Bathgate, via Blackridge.

The severe weather had left the access roads and platform surfaces at some of the intermediate stations on the route impassable, with up to three feet of snow standing at these locations in recent weeks.

The stations at Armadale, Caldercruix and Drumgelloch will be brought into use as soon as possible once the weather improves. A bus replacement service is being provided at these stations.

ScotRail said that the introductory timetable will have an hourly service from Helensburgh to Edinburgh via Bathgate and Airdrie on weekdays. There will also be four Edinburgh-Bathgate services during weekday peak times – double the current number.

Steve Montgomery, Managing Director of ScotRail, said: “I am delighted the new services are up and running across the route.

“It demonstrates the commitment and strength of industry partnerships in achieving significant improvements to the railway in Scotland. I am confident the new services will be a great success.”

The introductory timetable, which includes a direct half-hourly service from Helensburgh to Edinburgh at weekends, will be enhanced as more new Class 380 trains are introduced on Ayrshire, Inverclyde and Renfrewshire routes to and from Glasgow Central.

The new trains – the largest order of its kind in a decade – will allow Class 334 trains to move from these routes to the Glasgow to Edinburgh via Airdrie and Bathgate line.

The frequency will increase over time between Edinburgh and Glasgow Queen Street Low Level, with daytime trains every 15 minutes to be launched next spring.

The project has seen 15 miles of new track built to connect communities in West Lothian and North Lanarkshire. Bathgate and Drumgelloch stations have been rebuilt as part of the project, with Livingston North and Uphall stations having been upgraded.

Three new purpose-built stations have been constructed in Armadale, Blackridge and Caldercruix and 69 bridges along the line of route have either been upgraded or replaced.

Granted royal assent in 2006, more than 1,000 workers were on-site or servicing the worksites during the peak period of construction over the past 18 months and more than 4,500,000 man-hours have been worked on the project.

The longest new passenger line in Scotland for over a century, the rail link is expected to generate new socio-economic opportunities for those it serves and to help encourage motorists out of their cars, easing traffic on the M8.

The original railway between Airdrie and Bathgate closed to passenger trains in 1956 and to freight services in 1982.

*At Q1 2006 prices