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Themes COVID-19 ScotRail ORR Caledonian MacBrayne Scotrail New station HS2 Isle of Wight Borders Railway Signalling Network Rail Class 484 Weather Edinburgh Trams Timetabling Glasgow District Subway Christmas Lamington Viaduct Largs Largs Yacht Haven
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Passengers, and freight customers, will benefit from more than £16m of investment in Scotland's Railway over this Christmas and New Year. Engineers will be relaying track, renewing junctions and refurbishing structures across the country with work taking place in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Stirling, Perth and Inverness. In Glasgow, a key line into Glasgow Queen Street High Level station will be affected from Christmas Day until January 2 while engineers renew points - rails which move to allow trains to cross from one track to another - and replace over 1km of track at Cadder. This will have an impact on some services in and out of Glasgow Queen Street, but alternative routes between Glasgow and Edinburgh will be available. A number of services will continue to run. On the south side of the Clyde, engineers will be working from New Year's Day until the early hours of January 4, to renew junctions and life-expired track between Muirhouse and Eglinton Street, near Glasgow Central. In Stirlingshire, engineers will be delivering a range of works to renew track, upgrade signalling and level crossings while in Perth and Inverness works will be delivered to improve track at both stations.
(Permalink) Christmas Rail works |
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A section of the Union Canal near Muiravonside and Whitecross which suffered a major breach in August will now be fixed thanks to £6.25 million of funding from the Scottish Government.
(Permalink) Union Canal |
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Rail campaigners say they remain 'optimistic' that services will return to normal on the Far North Line once the Covid-19 pandemic is over.
(Permalink) COVID-19 ScotRail Timetabling |
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102 Pacers have now fully retired. In more than 35 years, Pacers have travelled over 300 million miles in the north. The final journey “ Kirkby to Manchester Victoria “ was completed by 142004. Northern has bid a final farewell to its fleet of Pacers after more than three decades' service.
(Permalink) Northern Pacers |
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More than £130,000 has been raised for the Waverley as part of a Covid-19 Relief Appeal.
(Permalink) COVID-19 PS Waverley |
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Pontoons have previously been suggested for Kilcreggan pier, which has served the village since Victorian times.
(Permalink) Kilcreggan Pier |
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ScotRail will deliver a revised timetable for customers from Sunday, 13 December as it continues to provide a critical service during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Announcing the changes, the train operator confirmed that around 81 per cent of the normal timetable will operate, with some services being removed following a significant reduction in passenger demand. ScotRail said this level of service will more than meet demand over the coming months. (Permalink) COVID-19 Timetabling |
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People who work on the railways often remark it is like one big family.
(Permalink) COVID-19 ScotRail Scotland's Railway Strike |
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A new lighthouse is being built at the Corran Narrows on Loch Linnhe to enable larger cruise ships to safely reach the West Highland town.
(Permalink) Corran Narrows Fort William |
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Trains to and from Edinburgh have been disrupted and some could be cancelled due to the failure of a power supply.
(Permalink) Power supply ScotRail |
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Aberdeen City Council has started a public consultation into two parallel studies for transport links to Aberdeen South Harbour and Wellington Road. Over the last 18 months, Aberdeen City Council has worked with partners to assess options through the STAG appraisal process for both studies. The next stage in the process is engaging with local stakeholders and members of the public to seek views on the likely impacts of the options for each study on individuals and businesses to assist the City Council in maximising the opportunities that the studies present locally, ...
(Permalink) Aberdeen |
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People living in some of the UK's most remote and isolated communities are furious after their 'lifeline' ferry company told them it was hiking charges for freight by 300%.
(Permalink) Caledonian MacBrayne |
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Calls have been renewed for to reinstate the Kinross rail link, amid claims it would cut journey times from Perth to Edinburgh by up to 35 minutes.
(Permalink) Kinross  Kinross Junction [2nd]: Part of the OS One Inch map of 1945 showing part of the then county of Kinross. Kinross-shire was not large, and even this small extract shows its only town and its only substantial village (locally pronounced Mills-i-forth, for some reason). Two junctions on the NBR Perth direct line are shown: Kinross, for the Devon Valley line to Alloa; and Mawcarse, the junction for the line to Auchtermuchty and Ladybank. Mawcarse was - and is - nothing but a house, but the station survived 14 years after the closure of the branch until the main line was closed in 1964. Crown copyright 1945.
 Kinross Junction [2nd]: The South & West Railway Society Granite City from Euston heads north through Kinross Junction on the Glenfarg Line on 3 September 1966 behind A2 Pacific 60532 Blue Peter on the Edinburgh - Aberdeen leg of its journey. The 1890 Kinross Junction was the second station to bear the name and the last survivor of the 4 (5 - EC) stations built in Kinross, finally closing in January 1970. See image [[20706]] |
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A book detailing newspaper reports of the building of the Settle-Carlisle has been published.
(Permalink) Midland Railway Settle and Carlisle Line |
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New Cumnock Railway Station was left in a sorry state last night after vandals pelted windows and destroyed shelters.
(Permalink) New Cumnock |
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HS2 and the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) have agreed to work together to deliver the utility diversions required to enable the planned Birmingham Eastside extension to serve the new HS2 Curzon Street Station on its proposed route to Digbeth.
(Permalink) Birmingham Curzon Street HS2 West Midlands Combined Authority |
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It has been 20 years since the first train load of goods left Grangemouth for the newly opened rail terminal in Daventry in the English Midlands. Operated by Direct Rail Services for customer WH Malcolm the train carried glass from Alloa to be used for bottling lager and making coffee jars. The northbound train returned the next day with petfood, pallets and some retail traffic.
(Permalink) DRS Grangemouth Rail freight WH Malcolm |
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Commuters at Kintore station have noted services which are not stopping despite being timetabled to do so.
(Permalink) Kintore Station skipping |
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A new video is showcasing the work ScotRail staff have put in to keeping customers and colleagues safe and moving during the coronavirus pandemic.
It highlights the fact that since March, deep cleans on trains to prevent the spread of the virus have increased by 270 percentage points. Cleaning staff are concentrating their efforts on all areas people frequently come into contact with, known as 'touch points'. These include ticket machines, gates, handrails, lift surfaces, pay phones, and door handles. (Permalink) COVID-19 |
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With the final withdrawal of Island Lines 80-year-old Class 483 trains a little over a month away, the London Transport Traction Group have announced that they've successfully secured one of these trains for preservation on the mainland, at the Epping Ongar Railway in Essex.
South Western Railway has confirmed to the group that they will have a unit for preservation, but its not been confirmed which unit - although it is likely to be 483006 or 483008. This is pending a final decision from the Science Museum's Railway Heritage Designation Advisory Board who are managing the disposal of some of the trains. (Permalink) Class 483 London Traction Group Science Museum South Western Railway |
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Emergency services will have a better chance of saving lives when responding to incidents in the Severn Tunnel thanks to a new innovative road-to-rail vehicle which has been provided by Network Rail.
(Permalink) Emergency Services Road-rail vehicle |
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Almost 60 years after the widespread axing of hundreds of Scottish railway stations, proposals have been made to reverse the closures and boost the economy.
(Permalink) Cove Evanton Fraserburgh New station Newtonhill |
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Following an investigation by the Office of Rail and Road (ORR), Scotlands Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service has prosecuted Network Rail for allowing trains to travel at more than 100mph over a badly storm damaged viaduct.
(Permalink) Lamington Viaduct ORR |
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Borderers with boots made for walking are invited to celebrate the beauty and magnificence of routes between the regions railway stations.
(Permalink) Book Borders Railway |
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Two Champagne Christmas Lunch trips aboard one of the worlds most luxurious trains have been temporarily derailed by the Scottish governments new Covid-19 restrictions.
(Permalink) Northern Belle |
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The volume of people using buses in Scotland also dramatically declined during the first weekend of tougher restrictions.
(Permalink) COVID-19 Glasgow District Subway Scotrail |
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Several trains were allowed to use the West Coast Main Line crossing after it was badly damaged in a storm.
(Permalink) Lamington Viaduct  Lamington Viaduct: Detail of the Network Rail poster at Glasgow Central showing the damage and repairs to Lamington Viaduct.  Lamington Viaduct: Aerial view of Lamington Viaduct looking east over the works to repair damage caused during Storm Frank. Network Rail have announced that works will continue throughout February. Network Rail news item.  Lamington Viaduct: Some of the considerable activity taking place on and around the WCML viaduct at Lamington on the morning of 2 January 2016. Part of the structure has suffered due to the effects of recent heavy rainfall on the fast-flowing River Clyde during storm Frank. At the time of the photograph (1030) the rain had stopped, although surrounding roads and fields were saturated, with flooding apparent in several areas. The line will be closed for some time. See image [[54263]] |
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Details of changes to the layout of the cycle lane and foot path on Leith Walk during November 2020.
(Permalink) Edinburgh Trams |
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Laser scanners and drones have been used to map every inch of the iconic Ribblehead viaduct as part of a major restoration project to secure its future for passengers and tourists.
(Permalink) Ribblehead Viaduct |
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Network Rail has reopened the Grade II listed footbridge at Prudhoe station for passengers after a major project to strengthen, clean and repaint it.
(Permalink) Prudhoe  Prudhoe: Seen during the restoration process, a section of Prudhoe station's footbridge with the old paint blasted off. |
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Following the Prime Minister announcing the start of construction on the London-Birmingham route, HS2 has released £12 billion worth of supply chain contracts to be let over the next 18 months
British businesses actively encouraged to bid for contracts 4-day virtual event starting today will showcase the plethora of opportunities available and advise businesses on how to get contract ready (Permalink) HS2 |
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Britain's railways were once the envy of the world. Around 5,000 miles of track were axed and more than 2,300 stations closed in the 1960s, mainly in rural areas, following the Beeching report. Scottish viewers won't want to miss episode two (airing December 4) which charts the history of the former Callander and Oban Railway, a 70-mile route from the Trossachs to the west coast.
(Permalink) Callander and Oban Railway Channel 5 |
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The Beeching cuts of the 1960s meant the end of the line for more than 2,300 of Britain's stations and the closure of about 5,000 miles of track.
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Proposals for a new marina railway station in Largs have received a mixed reaction.
(Permalink) Largs Largs Yacht Haven New station |
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All eyes are on Glasgow's Queen Street Station these days, as the £120m renovation works which started in 2017 near completion.
(Permalink) Glasgow Queen Street  Glasgow Queen Street High Level: Glasgow Queen Street pillar refurbishment in October 2020.  Glasgow Queen Street High Level: The revamped Glasgow Queen Street looks so starkly new in this image that it appears more like an architect's simulation. The view is from George Square.  Glasgow Queen Street High Level: New departures board at Queen Street. No one can claim to be starved of information, including a little train graphic to show the number of carriages. The Next Edinburgh Express panel is presumably there to steer people off the stoppers which depart first but arrive later (here, the 10.25). Infotec no longer supply amber LED boards so they'll gradually fade away (probably not literally). |
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A 'cultural shift' to make cyclists more welcome on trains has been urged by Scotlands active nation commissioner.
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KML version
