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Friday 27 Dec 2019

Passengers reminded to plan ahead for service disruption through Greenock and Port Glasgow

Region & Route:

Scotland’s Railway: Scotland

Network Rail is reminding passengers that buses will replace trains on the line between Paisley and Gourock on the first two weekends in January.

This is to enable bridge refurbishment work at Dellingburn Street in Greenock and the replacement of the bridge at Parklea Road in Port Glasgow - where local road closures are already in place at both sites.

The railway line will close on two weekends in January from end of service on Friday night until start of service on Monday morning as we work around the clock.  Buses will replace trains on the weekends of the 4^th/5th and 11^th/12^th January.

The refurbishment of the bridges is part of a wider, rolling programme of maintenance work on structures which is designed to extend their lifespan and keep the network safe and reliable. It represents and investment of circa £1.5m to protect and prolong the life of the two structures.

Work on the bridge at Dellingburn Street, near Morrisons in Greenock, includes improving the drainage and clearing adjacent vegetation, strengthening girders, repairing masonry, blast cleaning and repairing the metalwork, applying corrosion protection and painting over both weekends.

At Parklea, engineers will lift the railway and demolish and reconstruct the bridge deck, re-lay the track and undertake repairs on the masonry abutments (side walls) during 52 hours of continuous working on the weekend of the 11^th / 12^th January.

Jeremy Spence, Network Rail programme manager, said: “We understand that closing the line on these weekends is inconvenient for passengers but this work cannot be delivered safely without short-term closures.

“Road closures also have an impact on the communities adjacent to the work which is unavoidable. However, this is the most efficient and safest way to undertake the work required on the bridges.

“Delivering this work is a logistical challenge but we have planned the job carefully with our contractors and will complete it with the minimum possible inconvenience to the local community.”

If you have any questions about this work you can contact Network Rail’s 24 hour national helpline on 03457 11 41 41.  For latest information and progress updates follow on twitter @NetworkRailScot