NETWORK Rail has completed a £15 million programme of engineering upgrades across Scotland over the festive period.
The organisation said that the work will improve reliability and punctuality for passengers and freight customers.
A key junction at Greenhill on the Edinburgh – Glasgow mainline was modernised across nine days, with engineers replacing the junction and over 1km of track. A new ‘state-of-the-art’ signalling system was also installed to control trains in the area.
In Edinburgh, engineers replaced almost 2km of track on the east coast mainline at Craigentinny, delivering smoother passenger journeys. New drainage systems were also installed at Princes Street 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.
In Glasgow, teams worked over Christmas and New Year to carry out maintenance and repairs in the tunnels between Partick and Glasgow Queen Street, which were built in 1886.
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 at Network Rail Scotland, said, “I’m delighted to see our £15 million 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.”
