Over the next two weekends, Network Rail will be completing enhancement works at Dunblane station in the Scottish county of Perthshire.
The station is located on the former Scottish Central Railway, between Stirling and Perth, and has been part of the line since it opened in 1848.
The station's track layout has no facility for trains to reverse, so when trains arrive at platforms 2 or 3, they have to continue north to use switches and crossings further along the line. This can cause congestion on the railway between Dunblane and Perth, which constrains the timetable and makes the service vulnerable to disruption.
In order to resolve this, Network Rail began work in January 2023 to install a new crossover section of track at the station. It is spending £11.2 million on the work, which is part of a wider Scottish Government investment to improve connectivity and enhance capacity for both passenger and freight trains.
Although the work will be completed during September, the new crossover will not come into use until next year. When it does, it will enable trains to depart from Platform 3 when heading south from Dunblane station. This will allow trains to turn back towards Stirling up to thirteen minutes more quickly than an present. This will free up capacity through the route and help to make train services more reliable.
Next weekend 2-4 September, Network Rail and its contractors (Rail Systems Alliance Scotland, Babcock and Arcadis) will install the crossover track. The following weekend (9-11 September), they will carry out work to commission the new signalling system need to operate the crossover. On both weekends, trains will not run to or from Dunblane station between the early hours of the Saturday morning through to the Monday morning.
Network Rail carried out work to enhance the route earlier this year. Workers replaced a curved section of track at Barnhill, east of Perth station, with a new single line. They also remodelled the junction, allowing an increase in the speed that trains can travel along the line from twenty to fifty miles per hour.
Chris Sharkey, Network Rail's senior programme manager, said: “The first two weekends in September will see the culmination of many months of work in allowing us to deliver this critical and final part of the project.
“Our engineers have carried out extensive preparatory works in advance of the crossover being craned into position. This includes installing new overhead line equipment and making modifications to platforms to support the signals for the new section of track.
“We appreciate the inconvenience our activity will cause customers and those living closest to the railway over the two weekends.
“I want to thank people for their continued patience as we complete this work, which will deliver more reliable services for passengers and freight by reducing the impact of future unplanned disruption on the route.”
ScotRail will have a replacement bus service in operation over both weekends. Customers are being advised to check before they travel via www.scotrail.co.uk and www.nationalrail.co.uk
If you have any questions about this work, you can contact Network Rail's 24-hour national helpline on 03457 11 41 41. For the latest information and progress updates, follow on Twitter @NetworkRailScot.
