Scotland’s Railway has seen the first of several new electricity feeder stations to supply power for newly electrified lines.

The feeder stations come as part of a £120 million programme which is supported by the Scottish Government and will improve the resilience and reliability of the network whilst supporting additional electrically powered passenger and freight traffic.

The initiative will support the Scottish Governments targets in achieving a net-zero footprint for Scotland’s Railway by 2035

The feeder station was put in place near Paisley over the weekend and will be connected to the network during September 2022. In order for the placement of the feeder station to go ahead safely, a temporary surface was created to allow the positioning of the crane and ensuring that ground conditions were correct for the lift.

The Tadano crane (ATF220G) which lifted the station and can lift as much as 220 tonnes, was mechanically restricted to keep clear of the overhead powerlines on the site during the lift.

Lesley Pringle, project manager for traction power at Network Rail said: “The £120m investment from the Scottish Government for this programme is key to helping us meet our target to decarbonise Scotland‘s Railway by 2035.

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

Brain 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.

“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.”