AIRDRIE-BATHGATE TAKES MAJOR STEP FORWARD
Thursday July 24, 2008
Network Rail, and the company’s contractors, worked day and night to lay 12,500 tonnes of ballast, 3,000 metres of track and fit 12 new switching and crossing units during 16 days of major engineering works on the Airdrie-Bathgate Rail Link last month.
This period of intense activity, between 4th and 21st July, also saw the creation of an additional line connecting a new light maintenance train depot at Bathgate.
Network Rail is now one year into the Airdrie-Bathgate Rail Link project which will see Edinburgh connected through to Glasgow via Bathgate, Drumgelloch and Airdrie with new stations at Armadale and Caldercruix.
Work will continue this October at Newbridge Junction, affecting both the Bathgate branch line and the main Edinburgh-Glasgow line, to complete double-tracking and signalling work and to integrate the new line into the existing rail network. Once finished, passengers will enjoy a more reliable service.
Engineering work of this scale inevitably involves closing some lines for short periods and David Simpson, Network Rail’s Route Director for Scotland, understands the impact these important works can have on passengers.
“Once completed the Airdrie-Bathgate Rail Link will provide greater access to travel, leisure, education and career opportunities for communities in the central belt, particularly North Lanarkshire and West Lothian,” he said. “It will also link those communities together and make the area more accessible for people living or working in Edinburgh or Glasgow. We thank passengers for their patience during the recent works and can assure them of the long-term benefits this line will bring to their communities and Scotland’s economy as a whole.”
To view our gallery of images of the work undertaken, please click here.
ENDS