GREEN FOR GO WITH FIRST ELECTRIC TRAIN FOR GLASGOW-BARRHEAD LINE

The train (a Class 380) successfully completed test runs from between 15mph up to 75mph along the newly electrified lines between Glasgow Central and Barrhead station overnight on Wednesday, November 7, into Thursday, November 8.

Further test trains will run over the next few weeks ahead of the introduction of ScotRail electric passenger services on the line next month.

Over the last two years, engineers have installed 360 stanchions and structures supporting more than 66,000 metres of overhead power lines and renewed 130 metres of track.

Major modifications have been carried out to bridges along the route, including the replacement of the Nithsdale Road bridge at Strathbungo to create enough space for the new overhead lines. Bridge sidewalls were raised in height at Kennishead and Priesthill & Darnley stations to make them compliant for an electrified railway.

A significant amount of work also took place at Barrhead station, with platform 3 extended by nine metres to accommodate longer four-carriage electric trains. This involved moving the current buffers and rebuilding the access paths.




The Glasgow-Barrhead route is the latest to be electrified as part of a Scottish Government investment to decarbonise the railway to enable:

The Glasgow-Barrhead project forms part of the Scottish Government’s rolling programme of decarbonisation and follows on from the electrification of the main Edinburgh - Glasgow line, the Stirling-Dunblane-Alloa route and the Shotts line, with 325 single track kilometres of electrified railway delivered across Scotland over the last decade.