Contract awarded for station work

Network Rail has unveiled the contractor tasked with upgrading a Perthshire railway station.

Bam Nuttall will take on the £57million project to modernise the Highland mainline route between Perth and Inverness, including renovating Pitlochry Railway Station.

They will need to extend both platforms one and two at the Highland Perthshire station, carry out modifications to the track lay out, and introduce a new signalling system.

It is hoped once these works are completed, the station will be able to accommodate ScotRail’s new high-speed trains, which will be introduced to the Perth to Inverness route later this year.

Humza Yousaf, transport minister at the Scottish Government, said: “The awarding of the Highland mainline works contract is an important milestone in the progress of the project, which is on track to be completed in little over a year.

“The works planned to take place at Pitlochry allow for far more efficient crossing of trains, which along with the soon-to-be introduced high speed trains and infrastructure enhancements, will deliver faster more frequent journeys between Inverness and the central belt.”

Once the works planned for Pitlochry Railway Station and the Highland mainline route are completed, it is expected the average journey time will be reduced by 10 minutes.

Network Rail has said they may also be able to improve the time of the first and last trains between Perth and Inverness as well as a result, and provide a better distribution of stops along the way.

Jerry Dickson, regional director for Bam Nuttall, said they want to work with the local community on this project.

He explained: “Our team will be looking for opportunities to work with the local community to identify opportunities to leave a positive lasting legacy from the work at [Pitlochry] station.”