Media centre

Monday 8 Oct 2007

RAIL NETWORK TO UNDERGO MASSIVE WINTER ENHANCEMENT PROGRAMME

Region & Route:

Scotland’s Railway: Scotland

Scotland's railways will benefit from a series of major and co-ordinated engineering works over the festive holiday period this year.

A significant proportion relates to the delivery of more than GBP800m worth of enhancement projects, designed to transform rail travel in Scotland over the next five years.

Network Rail will be working at locations across Scotland to deliver a range of improvements and enhancements needed to modernise the railway and help deliver massive projects such as the new Airdrie-Bathgate and Stirling-Alloa-Kincardine lines and the Glasgow Airport Rail Link.

The planned works will include the electrification of Waverley station's Mound tunnel, the redesign and renewal of track at Glasgow's Shields Junction and the installation of new signalling systems at both Glasgow Central Station and between Larbert and Stirling. Vital maintenance will also take place at various locations on the Edinburgh-Glasgow and Dundee-Aberdeen routes.

All the projects have been timed to minimise the impact on passenger services, and to take advantage of the absence of trains on Christmas Day and New Year's Day. The scale of the work does, however, require several line closures for the full holiday period between Christmas and early January.

David Simpson, Network Rail Route Director for Scotland, said:

"The rail network in Scotland is currently experiencing a level of investment of unprecedented scale and ambition. "The engineering works we have announced today are vital to the delivery of important expansion projects across the country which will benefit train travellers, freight forwarders and the Scottish economy by providing new routes, increased capacity and improved reliability.

"We are fully aware of the effect these works will have on passengers and we are working with our partners to ensure that passengers are kept informed about the timetable changes and bus replacement services. Our focus is to ensure that all works are completed as quickly and effectively as possible at a time of year when the demand on commuter services is reduced."

Steve Montgomery, First ScotRail's Operations and Safety Director, said the investment and maintenance programmes were essential to deliver the network expansion.

He added: "They will involve a high number of replacement buses but we have done everything possible to keep inconvenience to an absolute minimum. Clearly, some journeys will take longer than normal and our customers should allow more time for travel."

In the west, resignalling works at Glasgow Central Station will be carried out on December 25 and 26 and January 1 and 2, with all services into High Level platforms on Boxing Day and January 2 being replaced by trains to Low Level platforms or by buses.

Improvement works at Shields Junction, just west of Glasgow Central, will mean that services to and from Ayrshire and Inverclyde will start and terminate at Paisley Gilmour Street between December 26 and January 6. Replacement bus services will operate between Paisley Gilmour Street, Paisley Canal and the city centre.

In Edinburgh, work to electrify the Mound Tunnel will begin on December 25 and will continue until January 4. Services to and from Waverley will be reduced in frequency with some starting and terminating at Haymarket.

On January 2, services travelling through the Larbert area to Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee and Aberdeen will be affected by resignalling works on the line between Larbert and Stirling.

Network Rail is working closely with First ScotRail and other operators to minimise disruption for passengers. Details of revised services are available from National Rail Enquiries at www.nationalrail.co.uk or phone 08457 48 49 50. A full timetable of revised train and replacement bus services will be announced in coming weeks.