Consultation launched on electrifying rail routes

PLANS to speed up Scotland's busiest rail routes with a £1 billion electrification programme will be launched today with one of the country's biggest ever consultations.

The Edinburgh-Glasgow Improvement Programme is due to cut the fastest journeys on the main line between the two cities by a fifth to 37 minutes in five years' time, with the number of trains stepped up from four to six an hour.

Electric trains will also run on seven other lines across the Central Belt, including between Edinburgh, Glasgow and Dunblane, cutting journey times by up to ten minutes.

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In total, electrification will cover nearly 220 miles of track currently served by diesel trains.

Haymarket station in Edinburgh will be overhauled, with a new tram-train interchange built beside the Gogar round- about to link rail passengers with Edinburgh Airport.

The new fleet of some 50 electric trains can accelerate faster than diesels, have lower maintenance costs and are expected to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 20,000 tonnes a year.

The plans have been previously announced, but Network Rail said the consultation was needed to alert people before the main work went ahead.

Parts of the project, such as in the Haymarket tunnel, have already been completed.

Transport minister Keith Brown will launch the five-month exercise, which will include 200,000 leaflets, at Waverley station in Edinburgh.

Two years ago, the Scottish Government's Transport Scotland agency, which is in charge of the project, predicted the country's largest ever rail scheme would be completed under budget. It is understood the confidence derived from the agency having been in the driving seat since the project was approved by ministers four years ago.