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Monday 20 Aug 2018

Aberdeen-Inverness line reopens on-time for customers

Region & Route:

Scotland’s Railway: Scotland

The railway between Aberdeen and Dyce reopened as planned this morning (Monday, August 20) after Network Rail engineers successfully completed a 14-week-long upgrade.

Since the line closed on May 12, over 450 engineers a day have been working around-the-clock to create a second line of track between Aberdeen and Dyce as part of plans to increase services and cut journey times.

Over 12 miles of new rails have been laid across 19,000 new sleepers and 66,000 tonnes of stone ballast on a six mile stretch of the line. Signalling systems have also been upgraded and 11 bridges either replaced or refurbished.

The work has been delivered as part of the Scottish Government-funded Aberdeen-Inverness Improvement Project.

Billy McKay, Network Rail senior programme manager, said: “The successful completion of this phase of the project is an important step towards delivering more services and more seats for customers.

“This was a massive engineering and logistical challenge, but through careful planning and professional delivery by the project team and contractors, we’ve been able to complete these vital works on-time and with as little disruption as possible.

“Passengers, and our line-side neighbours, have shown great understanding during the last 14 weeks and we thank them for their patience.

“Once complete, the Aberdeen-Inverness Improvement Project will increase capacity on the line which will mean more frequent services for customers and improved job and leisure opportunities for communities in the North East.”

The project has already delivered a new station at Forres for passengers at the eastern end of the line and next year will extend double-tracking to Inverurie.

The benefits of the Aberdeen-Inverness Improvement Project for ScotRail customers include:

· More services between Elgin and Inverness from this December, increasing during 2019 until there is an hourly service all day, providing 1,300 additional seats.

· A half-hourly service all day between Inverurie and Aberdeen from December 2019, with extra services at peak times, providing 3,000 additional seats each day.

· Additional Elgin-Aberdeen early morning and late evening services.

· InterCity trains operating between Aberdeen and Inverness, providing an extra 1,400 each day between the two cities.

· A new direct service between Inverurie and Montrose, reducing the need to change in Aberdeen.