Relieved town’s back to normal
The railway bridge in the town’s Station Road reopened last night (Tuesday) after being closed for almost a year.
Fed-up residents and businesses faced 11 months of traffic misery when the bridge was closed on September 11 last year.
Network Rail shut off the bridge as they continued their £ 5.7m project to electrify the Glasgow to Edinburgh line.
But they kept their promise that the road would back up before children to school after the summer break and was reopened at 7pm.
Councillor Tommy Cochrane said: “Network Rail have kept their side of the bargain that the bridge would be re- opened before the schools go back.”
Now councillor Cochrane has calling for regeneration of the town and has urged the council to make the car park in Station Road permanent for shoppers to use.
“I will be speaking to the regeneration manager and bringing this up at the next Local Area Plan meeting,” he said.
“There have been shops, hairdressers, the dentist and the Coop funeral parlour who have been hit during the closure.
“Also there have been residents in the flats who have had put up with a lot of noise and disruption.
“The residents only live about 300 yards away from the petrol station but they had a two-mile detour there while the bridge was closed.
Bus passengers were this week reminded that normal service will be resumed following the reopening of Station Road.
First Glasgow is advising customers that Service 266 – the Newmains/ Shotts to Hamilton route – is back to full service as of today. The bus operator has also announced that a timetable change will also come into effect this Sunday with an increased frequency of six minutes between Monday and Friday.
Margaret Mayer, of First Bus business director, Lanarkshire, said: “We’re pleased to be resuming our normal service following a prolonged the bridge works, during which we did everything we could to minimise the impact on customers.
“We’re also delighted to be introducing an increased daytime frequency between Hamilton and Newmains Cross from Monday to Friday. This is part of an initiative to encourage even more passengers on to what is a very popular service.”
Neil Gray, the MP for Shotts, added: “With the widening of Benhar Bridge and now the Station Road work, this area has been in turmoil in one way or another for far too long.
“I sincerely hope that the folk of Shotts will at last be free of major roadworks and be able to go about their daily lives without disruption and diversion.”