The Cycle Path
After the Airdrie-Bathgate line was closed in 1982, the railway line became a public footpath and cycle track, enjoyed and well used by many people over the last twenty-five years. It is a core section of the Clyde to Forth cycle route (National Cycle Route 75), offering a 16km path across central Scotland.
In 2004, Scotland’s Government gave the green light for the reopening of the Airdrie-Bathgate rail link. The project was recognised as a key transport improvement with one of the major benefits being to help address increasing congestion in the road network. The engineering solution which caused the least disruption to local communities was to re-instate the railway where it had once been, on the cycle path.
Network Rail is relocating the cycle path as part of the project in recognition of its importance to cyclists and the local communities it passes through. By the end of 2010 the new cycle path will run alongside the reopened railway line.