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Friday 1 Dec 2023

Passengers urged to check journeys as £15m festive rail works announced for Scotland

Region & Route:

Scotland’s Railway: Scotland

Network Rail will complete a range of vital infrastructure improvement works at locations across Scotland over the festive period.

The £15m investment will help to keep Scotland’s Railway reliable for passengers and freight services.

Most of the programme of track, drainage and signalling work will take place over the Christmas and New Year holidays when the majority of trains do not run.

Some projects will disrupt services, including:

Greenhill Junction

A key junction near Falkirk on the main Edinburgh-Glasgow line and Highland mainline, engineers will be replacing track, renewing and refurbishing points (rails that move to switch trains from one line of track to another) and upgrading signalling systems over nine days from late Christmas Eve until the early hours of January 2.

During that time Aberdeen/Inverness services will operate between Aberdeen/Inverness and Perth/Stirling only. Glasgow Queen Street - Alloa services will be diverted via Cumbernauld, and Edinburgh – Glasgow Queen Street, via Falkirk High, services will be diverted via Falkirk Grahamston and Cumbernauld. A replacement bus service will operate between Glasgow and Stirling with options to change trains at Stirling.

Edinburgh

In the capital, engineers will replace nearly 2km of track on the East Coast Mainline near Craigentinny on Christmas Day and Boxing Day when no trains are running and undertake drainage work at Haymarket North tunnel on New Year’s Day – meaning no LNER or CrossCountry services will be operating to the north or west of Edinburgh Waverley that day. Transpennine Express won’t operate between Carlisle and Edinburgh and Avanti West Coast will operate rail replacement buses between Carlisle and Edinburgh.

Helensburgh & West Highland Line

Signalling upgrades taking place at Craigendoran near Helensburgh over the New Year will see services to Helensburgh Central start/stop at Dumbarton Central on January 2 while services from Fort William, Mallaig and Oban will terminate at Crianlarich, with rail replacement buses in operation between Crianlarich and Glasgow Queen Street. Caledonian Sleeper services on the West Highland Line will not run.

Dundee

Engineers will be renewing a key set of point at Dundee Central Junction and renewing track over the Christmas and New Year period. While the majority of these works are being completed when no trains are due to run, LNER services won’t operate north of Edinburgh on New Year’s Day.

Gerry McQuade, capital delivery director for Network Rail Scotland, said: “Our work over the festive period is designed to protect the railway infrastructure and improve passengers’ experience when travelling by train.

“We are pleased to be able to deliver most of this work without any impact on services as it’s being carried out when trains are not running. We are, however, urging passengers to plan ahead and check their journey in advance.”

David Simpson, ScotRail service delivery director, said: “We know that improvement works can be an inconvenience to customers, but we’ll be doing everything we can to keep people moving to help them make the most of the festive period.

“We’re encouraging customers to leave extra time for travel, and plan journeys in advance. Customers can find out more about our alternative travel plan and what it means for their own journey by visiting the ScotRail website or by downloading our free mobile app.”

Passengers can check how their journey may be affected by visiting www.nationalrail.co.uk or by checking individual operators’ websites.