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Monday 6 Aug 2018

Festivals see visitors rise as Waverley escalators re-open for customers

Region & Route:

Scotland’s Railway: Scotland

• Numbers through Edinburgh Waverley were up 45% on Saturday, August 4, and 36% on Sunday, August 5.

Waverley’s concourse escalators re-entered service this weekend as visitor numbers through the station rose by up to 45% as thousands of extra passengers arrived for the Edinburgh festivals.

Footfall on Saturday reached 116,444, up by 45% when compared to the Saturday before, with Sunday seeing 88,302 visitors pass through Waverley – a rise of a 36% on the week before.

Over the next month Edinburgh Waverley will welcome hundreds of thousands of extra customers as the station experiences its busiest month of the year.

The refurbished escalators were brought back into service on Friday, restoring the well-used link to the footbridge above platform 11.

Juliet Donnachie, Network Rail station manager for Edinburgh Waverley, said: “The festivals are one of the highlights of Edinburgh’s year and draw tens of thousands of extra customers to Waverley every day.

“The station team, and our colleagues across the train operating companies, will be working hard throughout August to make sure we keep people on the move and help them enjoy this world-famous event.

“The reopening of the concourse escalators is another positive for passengers allowing easier access through the station at this busy time.”

The escalators originally closed last year to allow vital work to extend platform 12 as Waverley prepares for the arrival of new, longer electric train fleets. Network Rail engineers are also continuing to extend platforms five and six at the station.

The platform enhancements are being delivered as part of the Scottish Government’s Edinburgh Glasgow Improvement Programme (EGIP) and the Department for Transport-funded Intercity Express Programme (IEP).

The infrastructure works, and new rolling stock, will help to transform travel on both routes increasing passenger capacity and reducing journey times – by around 10 minutes between Edinburgh and Glasgow and by around 20 minutes between the two capitals.

ScotRail will also be running more services, later trains, and extra carriages during the festivals, including additional late-night trains between Edinburgh Waverley and Glasgow Queen Street and extra late-night trains at weekends from Edinburgh to Bathgate, Fife, Dundee, and North Berwick (with a connection for Dunbar). Customers can find out more at scotrail.co.uk/edfests