AN UPDATE has been issued to Helensburgh commuters after days of disruption caused by a closure of the railway...45 miles from town.

The Helensburgh to Edinburgh line has been shut between Airdrie and Bathgate since engineers discovered a 'sinkhole' at Caldercruix, North Lanarkshire, on the morning of Sunday, April 21.

As a result, ScotRail has only been able to run Helensburgh trains between Helensburgh Central and Airdrie.

And while the number of Helensburgh travellers using the section of line between Airdrie and Bathgate is relatively small, the closure has led to many services to and from Helensburgh being cancelled altogether.

Instead of the usual 30-minute frequency all day, trains to and from Helensburgh Central are only running every 60 minutes off-peak, though the half-hourly service is being maintained at peak hours and in the evenings.

Services departing Helensburgh are running every 30 minutes until 8.55am, then hourly until 3.54pm, and then roughly every 30 minutes until the end of the day.

In the other direction, the disruption has led to a major gap of two hours between direct services to Helensburgh in the morning peak, with the first departure from Glasgow Queen Street low level station at 6am and the next not leaving until 8am.

Thereafter, trains are running every 30 minutes from Queen Street to Helensburgh Central until 11am, then every 60 minutes until 6pm, and then every 30 minutes until the end of service.

However, those travelling west to Helensburgh in the morning peak do have the option of catching another train from Queen Street to Dalmuir, and changing there to a connecting service for Helensburgh Central.

Helensburgh travellers who do normally use the Airdrie-Bathgate section of line are having to change at Glasgow Queen Street for alternative services to or from Edinburgh, or are using a replacement shuttle bus which is running between Airdrie and Bathgate.

Network Rail says that even once the line reopens, trains will have to run with a speed restriction for two weeks while engineers work on a longer-term fix.

The infrastructure company says it's currently "on target" to reopen the line on Monday, April 29

James Montgomery, Network Rail's senior programme manager with Scotland's Railway, said: "We found a significant sinkhole under the track and we are currently pumping away 1,500 gallons of water per minute, which is a significant amount of water to try and manage on the track.

 

 

"We've dug a number of ditches to take that away safely into a watercourse, and what we'll be doping now is working to formalise those to get us into a position where we can manage that water.

"There will still be some significant works afterwards to get a permanent solution and make sure we manage where that water's coming from, but we can do that once we've got passengers moving again. 

"We know this is a disruptive incident and we're doing everything we can to get things open as quickly as possible while keeping everyone safe."

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