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Wednesday 26 May 2021

Engineering work for West Coast Mainline

Region & Route:

Scotland’s Railway: Scotland

Network Rail engineers will be carrying out essential maintenance and upgrade work on the West Coast Mainline this weekend to improve journeys for passengers.

From Saturday, May 29, until the early hours of Tuesday, June 1, teams will be working at a range of key locations between Glasgow and the Border.

At Carstairs, engineers will be renewing two junctions and working on overhead electric power lines as well as refurbishing a road-over-rail bridge near Carstairs station.

Work will also be taking place to renew life-expired track at the Dryffe Water Viaduct, near Lockerbie, and at several other locations including around Gretna and Wamphray.

South of the Border, Network Rail teams will be undertaking track works between Crewe and Carlisle.

Cross-border services on the West Coast Mainline and some ScotRail services, via Carstairs, will be significantly affected and customers should only travel if their journey is unavoidable.

Passengers are being urged to check their journey before travelling and more information on the changes to services over this weekend can be found on www.nationalrail.co.uk, or individual operators’ websites.

Liam Sumpter, Network Rail Route Director for Scotland, said: “Most of Scotland’s Railway will be open as usual, but some services will be significantly affected and we’re advising passengers to check before they travel.

“The work we are delivering is part of a £4bn, five-year programme of investment that will help to transform rail travel across Scotland.

“The West Coast Mainline plays a key role in moving freight and passengers around the country and the work we are undertaking this weekend is vital to its long-term reliability.”

Gus Dunster, Executive Director of Operations and Safety at Avanti West Coast, said: “As Network Rail carry out vital works near Carstairs, there will be alterations to our services to and from Glasgow and Edinburgh over the Bank Holiday weekend.

“As a result, journeys will take longer and involve a rail replacement service. We strongly recommend you make a reservation, plan your journey in advance as well as check the National Rail Enquiries and Avanti West Coast websites before travelling.”

Kathryn O’Brien, Customer Experience Director for TransPennine Express, said: “This work will impact our trains to and from Edinburgh and Glasgow this weekend with a replacement bus service in operation for part of the journey.

“We are expecting some of our services to be busier than they have been for a while and would strongly advise customers to check before and allow extra time to travel.”