Work on Scotland’s railway infrastructure will disrupt services over the festive period.

Network Rail is spending fifteen million pounds on the work, which it says will make passenger and freight travel more reliable.

The programme involves track, drainage and signalling work, and most will take place over the Christmas and New Year holidays when the majority of trains do not run.

The disruption will include:

Greenhill Junction

Engineers will be upgrading signalling systems and replacing track, renewing and refurbishing points at this key junction near Falkirk on the main Edinburgh-Glasgow line and Highland mainline. The work will take place over nine days from late Christmas Eve until the early morning of Tuesday 2 January.

While the work is being carried out, Aberdeen/Inverness services will operate between Aberdeen/Inverness and Perth/Stirling only. Services between Glasgow Queen Street and Alloa will divert via Cumbernauld, and services between Edinburgh and Glasgow Queen Street via Falkirk High will divert via Falkirk Grahamston and Cumbernauld. Replacement buses will operate between Glasgow and Stirling with options to change trains at Stirling.

Edinburgh

Engineers will replace nearly 2km of track on the East Coast Mainline near Craigentinny on Christmas Day and Boxing Day when no trains are running. They will also undertake drainage work at Haymarket North tunnel on New Year’s Day, so no LNER or CrossCountry services will operate to the north or west of Edinburgh Waverley that day. Transpennine Express will not operate between Carlisle and Edinburgh and Avanti West Coast will run rail replacement buses between Carlisle and Edinburgh.

Helensburgh and West Highland Line

While workers upgrade signalling at Craigendoran near Helensburgh over the New Year, services to Helensburgh Central will start and end at Dumbarton Central on January 2; and services from Fort William, Mallaig and Oban will terminate at Crianlarich, with rail replacement buses running between Crianlarich and Glasgow Queen Street. Caledonian Sleeper services will not run on the West Highland Line.

Dundee

Engineers will renew points at Dundee Central Junction and will also renew track over the Christmas and New Year period. Most of the work will be carried out when no trains are due to run, but LNER services will not run north of Edinburgh on New Year’s Day.

Passengers can check their journey on the national rail website, or by checking individual operators’ websites.

Gerry McQuade, capital delivery director for Network Rail Scotland, said: “Our work over the festive period is designed to protect the railway infrastructure and improve passengers’ experience when travelling by train.

“We are pleased to be able to deliver most of this work without any impact on services as it’s being carried out when trains are not running. We are, however, urging passengers to plan ahead and check their journey in advance.”

David Simpson, ScotRail service delivery director, said: “We know that improvement works can be an inconvenience to customers, but we’ll be doing everything we can to keep people moving to help them make the most of the festive period.

“We’re encouraging customers to leave extra time for travel, and plan journeys in advance. Customers can find out more about our alternative travel plan and what it means for their own journey by visiting the ScotRail website or by downloading our free mobile app.”