£218m train speed plan to be scrapped

It’s likely that plans to spend £218 million to cut rail journeys across Tayside and Fife will be scrapped.

This comes after a report claims the work will result in just “mere seconds of improvement”.

The project to upgrade the infrastructure was effectively scrapped at a recent meeting of the Transport Scotland reference group who are overseeing the project. The planned upgrade of the line at Usan near Montrose was first suggested 10 years ago.

Trains have to slow down to allow each other to pass along the one-and-a-half mile section of single track between Usan and the South Esk viaduct at Montrose Basin.

The stretch has been blamed for causing uncompetitive Dundee to Aberdeen rail times for 15 years.