15.04.16
Engineers start breaking up track as Glasgow Queen Street closes for 20-week renovation
Engineers have begun breaking up over 10,000 tonnes of slab track in the Glasgow Queen Street tunnel as part of the station’s major renovation works.
The high level station closed to trains on 20 March for the improvements and is set to reopen on 8 August, with more than 4,000m of new rails installed.
Engineers will break up the two lines of track separately in the 918m-long tunnel and use special engineering trains to take away the old material and deliver replacements.
Phil Verster, managing director of the ScotRail Alliance, said: “The renewal of the track through Queen Street tunnel is a very complex and technically challenging project and our engineers are working around-the-clock to complete this vital work as quickly as possible for our passengers.
“The work we are doing in the tunnel combined with the electrification of key routes and the wider redevelopment of Queen Street station will deliver significant and ongoing benefits for our customers for decades to come.
“While we understand the disruption this closure has caused to customers, we would also like to thank them for how quickly they have adapted to the new alterative arrangements being used to keep the vast majority of services running via the low level station.”
Engineers have already renewed track and key junctions to the north of the tunnel near Cowlairs and started lengthening and rebuilding platforms and track layouts within the station.
The tracks are also being lowered to allow for electrification as part of the Edinburgh Glasgow Improvement Programme (EGIP).
EGIP will see the main Edinburgh-Glasgow line, via Falkirk High, electrified by the end of 2016, and a new fleet of 70 Hitachi Class 385s running on a number of routes by December 2018.
RTM interviewed Ian McConnell, programmes & transformation director at ScotRail Alliance, and Jon Veitch, general manager in Scotland for Hitachi, in its last edition to find out how the construction of the Class 385s was progressing.
(Image c. Jane Barlow from PA Wire/ Press Association Images)