What’s happening next?
Challenges for Scotland’s network lie everywhere - from overloaded Glasgow Central station to Thurso, Scotland’s remotest outpost where services hang on by a thread.
But many schemes are in the pipeline. Improvements under Network Rail Control Period 5 (CP5, 2014-19) have been costed at more than £1.875 billion - £1.4bn from NR, and £475 million from the Scottish Government for new rolling stock.
Headline schemes include the complex Edinburgh-Glasgow Improvement Programme (EGIP). This has many strands - from remodelling Glasgow Queen Street station to lengthening platforms and improving the concourse, to further electrification in the Central Belt (including routes to Stirling, Dunblane and Alloa). Current estimates put the bill at £ 742m.
During CP5 more stabling capacity - allowing trains to be held out of service, cleaned and refuelled - will be built at Millerhill and Eastfield to accommodate the new Class 385 EMU fleet. Haymarket and Inverness depots are being modified to house and maintain the HST fleet. A new light maintenance depot at Perth is also planned, although on hold while land and funding are sought.
Infrastructure capacity will be needed for services at new stations at Dalcross and Kintore, part of the Aberdeen to Inverness enhancement scheme. There will be more commuter services on the Inverness-Elgin and Aberdeen-Inverurie sections.
A second phase (post-2019) will build on this. The aim is to provide hourly services between Aberdeen and Inverness by 2024, and half-hourly ones between Inverness and Elgin, subject to demand.
Plenty is also being done in and around Edinburgh. Recently Network Rail awarded Carillion a £ 23m contract to extend Platforms 5 and 6 (to the east of the station) and Platform 12 (to the west), as Waverley prepares for Virgin Trains East Coast’s new Azuma trains and ScotRail’s new Class 385s.
The infrastructure work, and new rolling stock, should increase passenger capacity and reduce journey times by around ten minutes between Edinburgh and Glasgow and 20 minutes between Edinburgh and London.
Work on Platform 12 is due to end in December, with Platforms 5 and 6 completed in 2018. Track remodelling will allow more trains to use Platforms 10 and 11.
Beyond 2019, RDG says more work will be needed on the station’s eastern approaches to maximise capacity. However, as this is potentially disruptive, the timescale is 2024-29 - after other improvements have been finished, allowing East Coast Main Line (ECML) services to be rerouted via Haymarket.
At Glasgow Central, various options will be considered: extending and remodelling existing platforms; providing more platforms beyond the current footprint; adding and remodelling approach lines. Even, perhaps, a new Glasgow city centre station, as by 2024 it’s expected that some platforms at Glasgow Central High Level will be too short to accommodate modern rolling stock. Other schemes include: Improving the layout at Carstairs - that key junction on the West Coast Main Line where lines from Euston to Glasgow and Edinburgh diverge. The result should be better line speeds and shorter journey times.
Remodelling Perth station to provide a better transport interchange. There will be resignalling ahead of electrification, and possibly some freight looping capacity.
Electrification of the track to Kilmarnock/ Barassie - to follow that of the line to East Kilbride and Barrhead, notionally by 2029.
As for paving the way for High Speed 2, during Control Period 6 (2019-24) there will be funding for work to determine how it (and High Speed Rail Scotland) can be integrated into the network.
HS2 services between Glasgow and London are planned from 2027 and between Edinburgh and London by 2033. Enabling works in Scotland will follow on from WCML renewals and enhancements, including Motherwell area resignalling and Rutherglen Junctions remodelling (due for completion by 2019).
Four-tracking from Prestonpans to Drem will be a step towards more cross-border passenger and freight services (longer term). Loops south of Drem are planned after this, to make the most of phasing in ECML corridor improvements.