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Friday 15 Dec 2017

Vital engineering works for Coatbridge railway line

Region & Route:

Scotland’s Railway: Scotland

Network Rail engineers will deliver a £3.5m investment to renew a key junction in Coatbridge this Christmas.

The work will take place between Sunday, December 24, and Tuesday, January 2, and is vital to the long-term future of the railway.

The project will renew Coatbridge Central Junction, replacing over 1,000 yards of life-expired track as well as resurfacing Platform 2 at Coatbridge Central station.

Once complete the renewed infrastructure will mean a more reliable railway for passengers and will reduce the need for long-term maintenance on the line.

During the works, Bank Street and Buchanan Street in the town will be closed from 23:00 on December 24 until 08:00 on December 28 for safety reasons.

These road closures will allow engineers to renew the track across the railway bridges over these streets. Closing the roads will reduce the risk of any ballast (stones from the track) falling onto the public below.

From December 27 to December 30, replacement bus services will also operate between Cumbernauld-Motherwell to allow these works to take place.

Eddie McLoone, Network Rail’s scheme project manager for the work, said: “This investment and maintenance is essential to ensure the continued running of a reliable rail network and it cannot be delivered without some short-term disruption to train services and the local road network.

“The work is being delivered over the festive season to limit the impact of the project on passengers and road users by taking advantage of what is a quieter time of year with fewer people travelling to work or school.”

Across Scotland this Christmas, Network Rail will complete more than £15m-worth of infrastructure upgrades with around 4,500 engineers working over 50,000 hours.

Signalling and overhead power lines will be renewed and replaced at locations around Glasgow and new tracks will be laid on sections of the west coast main line and the main line between Edinburgh and Glasgow.

Across Britain, more than 32,000 railway staff will be out delivering £160m-worth of work creating more reliable infrastructure, reducing journey times and improving facilities and services for passengers.