Passengers urged to check services as rail improvement work starts
Rail travellers are being urged to check how their journey will be affected by major improvement works at one of Scotland's busiest stations
Rail travellers are being urged to check how their journey will be affected by major improvement works at one of Scotland's busiest stations.
The Queen Street tunnel in Glasgow will be closed for 20 weeks from Sunday, with trains diverted to either Queen Street low level or Glasgow Central Station.
The diversions will mean most journeys take about 25 minutes longer.
ScotRail said the tunnel is being upgraded to allow faster, longer, and greener trains to run between Edinburgh and Glasgow.
During the tunnel work, travellers are being advised to arrive ten minutes early at Queen Street station, where there will be queuing systems to board low level trains.
ScotRail Alliance spokesman Rob Shorthouse said: "We are just days away from the start of the biggest, most important improvement to Scotland's rail network for many years.
"We have spent the last few weeks doing everything we can to make sure customers understand the changes to journeys that are necessary.
"However, with just a few days left, we are urging anyone who has not yet planned how they will travel for the next five months to do so.
"Trains are running, we are open for business. However, some services are being diverted and journey times will take longer than normal.''
To add extra capacity to the network, three Class 320 electric trains entered service for the first time this week - the first of seven which will add 21 extra carriages and 14,000 extra seats to the ScotRail fleet.
The website www.scotrail.co.uk/QueenStreetTunnel has been set up to provide customers with information about the changes.