Media centre

Tuesday 31 Jul 2018

Normal service resumes following successful delivery of Rutherglen works

Region & Route:

Scotland’s Railway: Scotland

Services are running as timetabled through Rutherglen today following Network Rail’s successful completion of planned engineering works as part of a major £100m investment in one of the busiest rail corridors in Scotland.

 

The Polmadie and Rutherglen Renewals (PARR) project is enhancing the signalling system between Glasgow Central and Rutherglen which will benefit routes south and east and across Lanarkshire.

The project is also renewing and upgrading the track and overhead line equipment within the Rutherglen East Junction area and on the strategically important West Coast Mainline to London.   

Ongoing since December 2016, PARR will improve the reliability of the railway, increase line speeds and improve the efficiency of train movements through the series of junctions at Rutherglen.

In addition to enhancing the signalling and overhead electrification systems, it is also renewing track, modernising the telecoms network and other supporting infrastructure to transform the way the junction is operated and maintained in the future.

Due to the complex nature of the work over the past few weeks, disruption was unavoidable on mid-weekdays as well as Saturdays and Sundays. The final weekend of work saw 72hrs of continuous round the clock working to renew and test signalling infrastructure and systems and sections of overhead line equipment through the busy rail corridor.

David Dickson, Network Rail’s infrastructure director, said: “It is great that such a major part of this project has been delivered successfully and that service for passengers can return to normal. This work is essential to ensuring that the network is resilient and reliable and that the quality of service can be maintained.

“I’m sorry for the short-term disruption that this work has caused, but the long-term improvements which are being delivered by this £100m investment will be hugely significant for services across a range of routes and will benefit thousands of passengers every day.

“While some inconvenience was unavoidable, we scheduled activity at the quietest times of the year to minimise disruption and worked closely with various train operators to get passengers to where they needed to be during this period.

“We are grateful for passengers’ patience while we delivered this investment in the network.”

The PARR project will be complete by September 2018.