Network Rail completes £16m upgrade of Scotland’s railway

Cadder, December 29 (Image: Network Rail)

NETWORK Rail has hailed its £16 million improvement works to Scotland’s railway as a success.

From Christmas Eve until the early hours of January 2, the rail management firm’s engineers worked at Cadder to the north of Glasgow to replace over 1km of track and renew or refurbish 12 sets of points.

The team also renewed signalling and overhead power equipment and upgraded points heaters – which Network Rail said will stop rails from freezing up during the winter months.

At Greenhill Junction, also in north Glasgow, work took place over Christmas to upgrade signalling systems to make the railway more resilient and reduce delays for passengers.

In the south side of the city, engineers worked from New Year’s Day until the early hours of January 4 to renew junctions and life-expired tracks at Pollokshields East and on the approaches to Glasgow Central station.

Elsewhere across Scotland, engineers were relaying track near Inverness station and in Edinburgh and upgrading track, signalling and level crossing equipment in Stirling.

Kris Kinnear, Network Rail Scotland’s capital delivery director, said, “The projects delivered over the festive period will help make Scotland’s Railway more resilient and more reliable and are part of a £4bn investment being made in our network between now and 2024. Our engineers worked around-the-clock in very challenging weather conditions – including freezing temperatures and snow – to complete these vital enhancements which will provide long-term benefits for our passengers and freight customers.”