Station’s upper level to re-open one day early
QUEEN Street station high level will reopen one day ahead of schedule, ScotRail have announced.
The work on the tunnel, which started in March, will be complete in less than two weeks and services will start to operate again from Sunday, August 7, instead of the following day as originally planned.
Passengers on many routes out of the station have put up with diversions, delays, cancellations and longer journeys throughout the five-month period of the works, to allow electrification of the main Glasgow to Edinburgh line.
ScotRail said the work has been “challenging” but that the benefits would be “amazing”.
Phil Verster, managing director of ScotRail Alliance, thanked passengers for their patience and said: “I’m delighted to confirm that we will be able to reopen the Queen Street tunnel a day ahead of schedule.
“This has been an extraordinarily complex job. Our people have been working round the clock, often in really challenging circumstances, to get this job done.”
The work involved lowering the tunnel track bed to allow overhead wires to be fitted for new electric trains.
Mr Verster added: “I’m incredibly grateful to our customers for the patience and understanding that they have shown over the course of the last five months.
“The work that we have been doing at Queen Street will deliver amazing benefits for our customers in the future.
“Our new faster, longer greener trains will be arriving in just over a year’s time, thus meaning more seats, shorter journey times with less i mpact on our environment.”
Later this year, work to redevelop the station to lengthen platforms to take longer trains will start. It is due to be completed by 2019.
The overall project to electrify the line is delayed by around seven months and new trains will not run on the line until July next year. It was reported earlier this month the costs have increased above the £742 estimate.
Transport Minister Humza Yousaf, who earlier said he was disappointed by the overall delay to the electrification work, welcomed the announcement of the completion date of the Queen Street tunnel work.
He said: “I am pleased that the work in Queen Street tunnel has completed on schedule and, like all rail passengers, I am looking forward to the resumption of normal services.
“I would like to thank the public for their patience during the closure.”