Flood-damaged Edinburgh to Glasgow railway line to reopen

The line, via Falkirk High, was closed after the Union Canal burst its banks on Wednesday, August 12.

Flood-damaged Edinburgh to Glasgow railway line to reopen Network Rail

The main Edinburgh to Glasgow railway line will reopen for passengers on Monday following a month of repairs after the track was damaged by flooding.

The line, via Falkirk High, was closed after the Union Canal burst its banks on Wednesday, August 12.

The force of the water completely washed away sections of track near Polmont and undermined embankments along a 300m stretch of the line.

Damage: Sections of the track were washed away. <strong>NETWORK RAIL</strong>” /><cite class=

Over the past five weeks, engineers have been working round-the-clock to completely rebuild the foundations of the line, replacing more than 15,000 tonnes of soil and stone beneath the track.

A kilometre of new double-track railway has also been laid – consisting of more than 4500m of new rails and 4424 concrete sleepers, along with 10,000 tonnes of new ballast requiring 27 engineering trains.

More than 3000m of signalling cables have been re-laid and two new twin-track overhead power gantries installed.

ScotRail has been operating a rail shuttle service between Linlithgow and Edinburgh since Monday, September 14, to keep customers moving while engineers carried out the extensive work.

Repair: Engineers have been working round-the-clock. <strong>NETWORK RAIL</strong>” /><cite class=

Michael Matheson, cabinet secretary for transport, infrastructure and connectivity, said: “The scale of the challenge faced by those repairing the damage to this vital route was huge and that they have delivered this so promptly is testament to the hard work and dedication of staff across Scotland’s Railway.

“I’d like to thank everyone involved for enabling services to be restored for passengers sooner than first anticipated. I’d also like to thank rail users for their patience while this work was ongoing.

“It is clear that severe weather events will continue to have an impact on our transport networks in future years to come and that is why we are taking steps to add further resilience by making climate change mitigation a central theme of our National Transport Strategy.”

STV News is now on WhatsApp

Get all the latest news from around the country

Follow STV News
Follow STV News on WhatsApp

Scan the QR code on your mobile device for all the latest news from around the country

WhatsApp channel QR Code