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Monday 19 Dec 2005

WAVERLEY STATION REDEVELOPMENT ON TRACK FOR NEW YEAR START

Region & Route:

Scotland’s Railway: Scotland

Passengers using Edinburgh Waverley station will see the £150 million investment in the Scottish station get underway in the New Year. Two major contracts worth £53 million have been awarded by Network Rail as part of phase one of the redevelopment which will see improvements to the station, platforms, track and signalling. ·               AMEC SPIE Rail has been awarded a £24million contract to carry out track and platform improvements. The work will involve construction of two new platforms in the station, reinstatement of a bay platform for use by passenger trains plus construction of a new bay platform at Haymarket station to accommodate changes to train services while construction work is carried out. As well as providing greater operational flexibility for train services, the improvements will enable the station to increase train capacity from 24 to 28 trains per hour ·               Westinghouse Rail Systems Limited has won a £29million contract to install upgraded signalling and telecoms. The work will involve modernising Edinburgh Signalling Centre to an Integrated Electronic Control Centre (IECC), installation of automatic route setting technology, signalling improvements and upgrade of telecoms throughout the station. The modernised technology will improve the reliability and efficiency of the increased number of trains moving in and out of Edinburgh Waverley John Armitt, Chief Executive, said: “Work will soon be underway in Waverley, and when it’s complete, passengers will notice enormous improvements. As well as looking more modern and being fully accessible, four extra trains will run every hour. The increased number of platforms and state of the art signalling that are being installed as part of this project will give us the flexibility and technology to run a better service.” It has long been acknowledged that Edinburgh Waverley currently suffers the most significant capacity constraint in central Scotland’s rail network.  This major investment by the Scottish Executive will enable Network Rail to put that right. John Armitt added: “Network Rail has already proved its ability to manage and deliver major construction projects on time and on budget – most recently with our delivery of the faster West Coast journey times and the reopened Larkhall line. It will be great to keep up that momentum by starting work on Edinburgh Waverley station soon after Christmas.”