Scotland’s Railway opens £33million servicing depot
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Scotland’s Railway continued its Fit For The Future’ investments with the opening today (Sunday) of a new engineering depot at Cadder, near Glasgow.
Located between Bishopbriggs and Lenzie on the Edinburgh and Glasgow line, Cadder was quickly identified as the ideal location to accommodate up to six High Speed Trains (HSTs) due to its accessibility to Glasgow Queen Street and Edinburgh Waverley stations where more than 80 per cent of Inter7City services start or finish.
The size of the site means the yard can be expanded if extra space is needed to accommodate more rolling stock in the future.
The £33million investment was managed by Network Rail and paid for by Transport Scotland.
Going forward, it will be operated by ScotRail on behalf of the rail network.
Up to one hundred railway staff have been on site each day, working to deliver the project which includes three new service platforms and a new modular building to accommodate staff from ScotRail, Network Rail and their supply chain.
Sharing the site with Network Rail reduced the capital and ongoing operating cost of the new depot.
A new facility for train presentation staff has been installed along with equipment for re-fuelling, toilet servicing and a train wash which will allow night-time cleaning and servicing for the HSTs that travel from Glasgow and Edinburgh to Aberdeen and Inverness.
Cadder depot will bring a number of benefit including shifting the burden of stabling HSTs away from Perth, Haymarket and Eastfield Depots.
A new office facility inside the yard will accommodate Rail Systems Alliance Scotland staff, which is a partnership between Network Rail, Babcock and Arcadis.
The two-story building will operate day and night and it will also provide accommodation for ScotRail HST Depot staff.
Kirsty Devlin, ScotRail Head of Projects said: “I am delighted that Cadder depot has opened.
“It means that we can accommodate more High Speed Trains in the central belt where most of them start and finish their journeys.
"And pressure will be taken off existing depots in Perth, Haymarket and Eastfield.
“This is another example of the massive investment we are making to transform Scotland’s Railway into a network that is fit for the future and that our customers deserve.”
