EGIP part of successful Christmas and New Year work programme
Network Rail Scotland engineers worked around-the-clock on Scotland’s Railway over Christmas and New Year to deliver over £20m of key infrastructure upgrades.
The projects were part of one of the biggest festive period investment programmes ever carried out on Britain's rail network worth £150m UK wide.
Engineers worked to replace junctions, lay new track, renew structures and commission signalling at locations across Scotland to upgrade and renew infrastructure and increase capacity at key junctions on the network.
In Glasgow, engineers commissioned a new signalling system between Anniesland and Kelvindale in the final phase of a £14m investment to increase capacity through Anniesland station.
The new signalling, which has been installed along with 350m of new track over the last six months, was commissioned and tested following the end of service on Christmas Eve with the railway reopening on the morning of Sunday, December 27.
Now operational, the new track and signalling will connect the Maryhill / Anniesland branch line into the wider North Clydeside rail network travelling towards Glasgow Queen Street low level station.
This increased capacity and flexibility will be utilised for the first time during the 20 week closure of Queen Street High Level Tunnel from March 2016 as trains travelling from Edinburgh, Dundee Aberdeen, Inverness and Fort William to Glasgow will be re-routed during the essential tunnel renewal.
At Haymarket East junction in Edinburgh, a £7m project saw sections of track and three sets of points – pieces of track that move trains from one line to another – replaced over Christmas Day and Boxing Day.
Elsewhere, engineers continued to prepare the main Edinburgh-Glasgow, via Falkirk High, line for electrification as part of the Scottish Government-funded £742m Edinburgh-Glasgow Improvement programme (EGIP).
Infrastructure to help power new electric trains was installed in Falkirk High tunnel, platform lengthening works continued at Polmont station and engineers demolished three low bridges at Philpstoun, Park Farm and Niddry Bridge along the route to create space to run overhead power cables.
Phil Verster, managing director of the ScotRail Alliance, a new partnership between Network Rail and Abellio ScotRail, said: “Scotland’s railway is more popular now than ever before and, as passenger numbers continue to grow, it is vital that we invest in maintaining and enhancing our infrastructure.
“The projects we delivered this Christmas will help to increase capacity and flexibility on the network, reduce delays by improving reliability and prepare the railway for the new faster, longer, greener trains we will be introducing as part of EGIP.
“The works were timed to take advantage of the reduced number of services operating on our network over the festive period, reducing the impact on our customers as much as possible.”