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Wednesday 2 Oct 2024

Bridge demolition work complete on £140m East Kilbride project

Region & Route:

Scotland’s Railway: Scotland

Network Rail has demolished two bridges on the East Kilbride line as part of a £140m improvement project.

Engineers completed the work – the latest phase of the East Kilbride enhancements project - this morning (Tuesday 1 October) at Thornliebank Road in the southside of Glasgow, and on Westerton Lane near Busby station.

At Westerton Lane, a replacement bridge was craned into position following the demolition, with a new structure also going to be put in place at Thornliebank Road.

Both new bridges will have enough space underneath to allow the installation of new overhead line equipment that will power electric trains on the route.

A third structure – a new accessible footbridge – was craned into position at the new Hairmyres station at the weekend, with drainage work also having now been completed between Hairmyres and East Kilbride stations.

In addition, a £5m track renewal project, designed to improve service reliability, began at Busby Junction, where the East Kilbride and Barrhead lines meet.

Services are now operating again, with none having run on the line while the work was taking place from the early hours of Saturday (28 September) until today.

Paul Reilly, senior programme manager, Network Rail, said: “We’re really pleased to have been able to complete these critical elements of the East Kilbride enhancement project.

“These works are designed to enhance and improve the infrastructure for our passengers and freight customers for years to come.

“We appreciate that there’s never a great time to close lines and our thanks go to passengers and the wider community for their patience over the weekend.”