Scotland’s Railway completes £15 million engineering programme

Network Rail has completed a multi-million-pound programme of engineering upgrades across Scotland over the festive period, which will improve reliability and punctuality for passengers and freight customers.

A key junction at Greenhill near Falkirk on the Edinburgh-Glasgow main line was modernised. Over nine days, engineers replaced the junction and over 1km of track. A new state-of-the-art signalling system was also installed to control trains in this area, the heart of Scotland’s Railway.

In Edinburgh, engineers replaced almost 2km of track on the East Coast Mainline at Craigentinny, delivering smoother passenger journeys. New drainage systems were installed at Princes St Gardens and Haymarket station, to help the railway better deal with extreme weather.

Dundee station saw one of its critical junctions replaced, improving reliability on the East Coast route.

At Hairmyres, engineers demolished three bridges as the £140 million Scottish Government-funded East Kilbride Enhancement Project gets underway. It will see the Glasgow to East Kilbride route upgraded and electrified, enabling greener electric trains to be introduced.

In Glasgow, teams worked over Christmas and New Year to carry out maintenance and repairs in the tunnels between Partick and Glasgow Queen Street, first built in 1886, almost 140 years ago.

The Helensburgh area saw a signalling system upgrade that’ll help keep the busy North Clyde and West Highland Line services on time. This includes the modernisation of several level crossings to improve safety.

Jeremy Spence, route delivery director, Network Rail Scotland, said: “I’m delighted to see our £15m programme of investment over the festive period has been completed on time. These essential upgrades will improve the railway for passengers and freight customers.

“The festive period is a critical time when we can carry out these huge projects while fewer trains are running. Completing this amount of work in such a short space of time is a huge challenge, so I want to thank my many colleagues from Network Rail and our contractors for giving up their Christmas to help us to improve Scotland’s Railway.”