Scotland's rail network speeds up eco friendliness with new feeder station installed

The first of several new electricity feeder stations for Scotland’s Railway is now in place, a move billed as being set to ultimately help bring about more green and sustainable travel options.

The asset, which will connect to the network in September, was put in place near Paisley at the weekend, with a temporary surface built on which to position the crane and to make sure the ground conditions were suitable for the lift. Additionally, the movement of the Tadano crane, which can lift up to 220 tonnes, was mechanically restricted to avoid the overhead powerlines on-site.

The installation is part of a £120 million programme being backed by the Scottish Government in a bid to enhance the resilience and reliability of the infrastructure and to support additional electrically powered passenger and freight traffic.

Lesley Pringle, project manager for traction power at Network Rail, welcomed such investment, saying it is “key to helping us meet our target to decarbonise Scotland’s Railway by 2035”.

She added: “This is the first of the new feeder stations to arrive and it’s a definitely been a challenging site but our colleagues from across the Scotland’s Railway team have worked tirelessly to ensure it runs smoothly.”

Scotland’s Railway is a group comprising around 150 organisations and suppliers from across the rail industry in Scotland.

Brian Sweeney, project delivery engineering manager at Network Rail said: “This work will boost the supply to our network in the Central Belt. This will help to deliver power to newly electrified lines and also provides us the additional capacity to run more trains on the existing network.

The feeder station, which will connect to the network in September, has just put in place near Paisley. Picture: contributed.

“This will ultimately deliver more green and sustainable travel options for people and freight customers, removing many more vehicles from the roads in Scotland.”

Allan Black, senior project manager at SPL Powerlines, said: “We’re lifting the feeder station into position and it will be brought into service during September once all the relevant testing and safety procedures are complete.

“There has been a significant amount of work to prepare for this, and we’re already on site working at the next locations. Work started in the Central Belt and will extend as far as East Kilbride, Borders, Barrhead and Fife, with completion due in 2026.”