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Tuesday 22 Dec 2015

Railway Upgrade Plan to deliver £20m of improvements for passengers this Christmas

Region & Route:

Scotland’s Railway: Scotland

Engineers will be working around-the-clock on Scotland’s Railway this Christmas to deliver over £20m of key infrastructure upgrades.

The projects are part of one of the biggest festive period investment programmes ever carried out on Britain’s rail network – worth £150m UK-wide.

Our engineers will be working to replace junctions, lay new track, renew structures and commission signalling at locations across Scotland.

At Haymarket East junction in Edinburgh, a £7m project will see sections of track and three sets of points – pieces of track that move trains from one line to another – replaced over Christmas Day and Boxing Day.

This vital project is being carried out to replace life-expired infrastructure to ensure we can continue to run a safe and reliable railway. The works have been timed to coincide with the public holidays as most lines through Edinburgh are already closed and regular passengers services aren’t running.

In Glasgow, engineers will be commissioning a new signalling system between Anniesland and Kelvindale in the final phase of a £14m investment to increase capacity through Anniesland station.

The new signalling, which has been installed along with 350m of new track over the last six months, will be commissioned and tested following the end of service on Christmas Eve with the railway reopening on the morning on Sunday, December 27.

Once operational, the new track and signalling will connect the Maryhill / Anniesland branch line into the wider North Clydeside rail network travelling towards Glasgow Queen Street low level station.

Elsewhere, engineers will be continuing to prepare the main Edinburgh-Glasgow, via Falkirk High, line for electrification as part of the Scottish Government-funded £742m Edinburgh-Glasgow Improvement programme.

Infrastructure to help power new electric trains will be installed in Falkirk High tunnel, platform lengthening works will be continuing at Polmont station and engineers will be removing low bridges along the route to create space to run overhead power cables.

Phil Verster, managing director of the ScotRail Alliance, a new partnership between Network Rail and Abellio ScotRail, said: “Scotland’s railway is more popular now than ever before and, as passenger numbers continue to grow, it is vital that we invest in maintaining and enhancing our infrastructure.

“The projects we are delivering this Christmas will help to increase capacity and flexibility on the network, reduce delays by improving reliability and prepare the railway for the new faster, longer, greener trains we will be introducing as part of EGIP.

“The works have been timed to take advantage of the reduced number of services operating on our network over the festive period, reducing the impact on our customers as much as possible.”