More seats for customers on East Kilbride and Barrhead line
ScotRail has announced a boost for customers in South Lanarkshire, with more seats to be made available for the increasingly popular East Kilbride and Barrhead services.
Additional Class 156 trains will be provided during the morning and evening between Glasgow Central and East Kilbride / Barrhead from May 2019.
Train services on these routes have seen significant passenger growth in recent years:
- More than 3 million customers travelled on the East Kilbride route last year – an increase of 0.9 million in nine years
- More than 1.8 million customers travelled on the Barrhead and Kilmarnock route – an increase of 0.8 million since track and signalling improvements were completed in 2009
Transport Scotland has supported the extra seats for customers through additional funding – this will mean more four carriage trains (each with 284 seats) to and from Barrhead at peak times, and the majority of trains to and from East Kilbride with six carriages (436 seats).
The extra seats will be introduced when the electrification projects across the Central Belt complete, and ScotRail receives enough of its brand-new Hitachi Class 385 trains. The Class 156 trains will be refurbished during 2019.
As part of the Scottish Government’s ongoing investment in Scotland’s railway, Network Rail are also in the early stages of developing a range of options for a programme of enhancements to the East Kilbride line, with the aim of providing additional capacity and supporting future service enhancements.
This is welcome news for EK passengers.
I have been working with ScoRail and Linda Fabiani to achieve this but there is much more to be done.
The next step is to see the line made twin-tracked throughout and hopefully electrified. Much, much better parking is also required as the town expands if we want people to use the train.
ScotRail Head of Business Development Scott Prentice said:
“This is fantastic boost for our customers in South Lanarkshire and is the first phase of the larger Scottish Government project to enhance railway to East Kilbride and Barrhead.
“These routes are showing continual growth and I am delighted that we will be able to make such significant improvements for our customers.”
