Feed station upgrades make progress for Scotland’s Railway | So Good News

The next phase of power supply improvements is underway and will support Scotland’s Railways’ electrified rail network

The program of work comes as part of the Scottish Government’s £120m investment to increase both the resilience and capacity of the network.

Network Rail and Scottish Powerlines (SPL) engineering teams will install a new modular feeder station along with upgrading a key track section cabinet near Glasgow Central Station which helps regulate the power supply.

A key part of the upgrade work will be the reconfiguration of power supplies which will cater for the increase in demand as electric trains are introduced on the lines between Glasgow and Barrhead and East Kilbridge.

Alice Wilson, Traction Planning Project Manager at Network Rail, said: “The Scottish Government’s £120m investment to upgrade the electrical power supply of the rail network is key to helping us achieve our target of decarbonising Scotland’s railways by 2035.

“This work will power the cleaner, greener electric trains on the Glasgow-Barrhead and East Kilbride lines for years to come. This directly supports the decarbonisation of passenger services on Scotland’s railways by 2035 and delivers the modal shift required for Scotland to reach Net Zero.

“Working on Glasgow’s electrified rail network is always challenging, but our industry partners have been working with us to plan, design and deliver the work in a way that reduces risk, minimizes disruption and helps us move forward with our plans to decarbonise the network .”

The vital work will lead to the substation being put in place without disruption to either passenger or freight services.

The £120m traction investment is progressing well and the Ferguslie feeder station in Paisley was installed during July 2022 and is due to be operational in early 2023.

The Ferguslie feeder station was also visited by Scottish Transport Minister Jenny Gilruth in August 2022.

The first phase of the investment will see six brand new feeder stations along with nine upgrades to traction infrastructure locations across the central belt, Scottish Borders and Fife.

The work underway for the power supply network will continue and is expected to be completed in 2026. The huge investment will provide improved resilience to the current network along with new connections to the national grid via the feeder stations, providing increased overall capacity for the 25 kV electrified network.

The improvement of the power supply for the network will mean that electric trains can be introduced for services operating to East Kilbridge and Barrhead, on the Borders line and across Fife, as well as supporting greater volumes of traffic on routes such as the East Coast Mainline.