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Friday 24 Jul 2015

Winchburgh works to finish on time for passengers

Region & Route:

Scotland’s Railway: Scotland

The ScotRail Alliance has today (Friday) confirmed that the Edinburgh-Glasgow main line will reopen as planned on Monday (July 27) following the successful, on-time completion of a six-week project to upgrade Winchburgh Tunnel.

Engineers – who have been working to lower and relay track through the 330m-long tunnel and install equipment to enable electrification of the line – will complete the 44-day, £17m project to schedule this weekend.

All ScotRail passenger services affected by the work, which has been the most significant piece of engineering on the line since the Victorian era, will resume normal service from Monday morning.

Derek Mackay, Minister for Transport and Islands, said: “I am pleased that this major programme of works at the Winchburgh Tunnel has been completed both on time and within budget.

“Completion of the work at Winchburgh is a key milestone in the Edinburgh Glasgow Improvement Programme, which is a comprehensive programme of improvements to Scotland’s rail network.

“Upon completion this will deliver a 20% reduction in journey time and allow the rail network to carry 30% more passengers between Scotland’s two biggest cities.

“I would like to thank all the passengers whose travel plans have been affected for their patience over the past six weeks.”

Phil Verster, ScotRail Alliance managing director, added: “The on-time completion of a project of this size and complexity in just six weeks is a significant achievement for all of the engineers involved.

“It also demonstrates how, by working more closely together, the rail industry in Scotland can deliver vital enhancements to our network while also keeping passengers informed and on the move.

“This is a massive piece of work that will help deliver long-lasting benefits to our customers. Electrifying the line between our two biggest cities will allow us to run faster, longer, greener trains that will cut journey times and increase the number of seats available on this key route.

"We would like to thank our customers for their patience and co-operation while the tunnel has been closed – passengers adapted very quickly to the unavoidable short-term disruption and we are very grateful for their understanding and support."

Working around-the-clock to limit disruption to passengers as much as possible, engineers have completed over 80,000 hours of work on the project since it began on June 13, pouring over 2,000 tonnes of concrete and laying nearly 200 slabs of track through the newly lowered tunnel.

Additional staff were also deployed to stations along the route to help advise passengers affected by the project – which impacted principally on services on the Glasgow-Falkirk High-Edinburgh and Dunblane/Stirling-Edinburgh lines.

Part of the Scottish Government-funded, £742m Edinburgh Glasgow Improvement Programme (EGIP), the refurbishment of Winchburgh Tunnel is a vital step towards the electrification of the main Edinburgh-Glasgow Queen Street line by 2016.

Once complete in 2016, electrification will mean faster, greener and longer electric services on the route with more seats and more space for customers.