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Tuesday 28 Feb 2023

Railway fencing boost for West Highland Line

Region & Route:

Scotland’s Railway: Scotland

Five kilometres of fencing has been upgraded to stop livestock from entering the railway.

Network Rail has completed work to renew five kilometres of fencing between Craggan and Arrochar.

The fourth month project, which saw new, more robust fencing installed along the West Highland line, has been designed to improve safety and reliability by keeping livestock off the line.

Animals wandering on to the railway can cause significant safety risks, disruption to services and are costly both financially and time-wise to remove.

Twenty tons of the lighter weight fencing, which will achieve the necessary strength to stop livestock from entering the line was air-dropped by helicopter to the work area during the project.

Sam McIlvaney, Network Rail’s project manager for the fencing renewal, said: “Inadequate fencing meant that livestock kept getting onto the track at this location which led to regular calls on staff-time to safely remove the animals and return them to the farmer. This created a safety risk for both staff and passengers and caused disruption to services.

“The challenge of renewing the fencing at this location meant that we had to look at different ways to plan and deliver this work. The helicopter offered a great solution to reduce the time and risk involved and to get materials to site in a way that is time-efficient and cost-effective.

“We designed and delivered the project with the support of Scotland’s Air Operations team, neighbouring landowners and our contractors QTS, who have all worked with us to make this possible.

“We are grateful to everyone involved in this project for their support and cooperation throughout.”