A £7 million (€8.4m) programme of Christmas and New Year engineering works has been completed at Mossend, near Glasgow. The works have delivered a major boost to the resilience and performance of Scotland’s rail freight heartland. The engineering focused on renewing and upgrading critical infrastructure that supports the majority of Scottish freight movements.
Network Rail Scotland says the investment underlines the strategic importance of the Mossend area, which handles around eighty per cent of Scotland’s rail freight services. Mossend, on the edge of Bellshill, sits in the middle of the populous Central Belt, roughly midway between Glasgow and Edinburgh. It’s directly connected to the West Coast Main Line and close to the East Coast Main Line, the two cross-border freight routes between Scotland and England.
Wide-ranging renewals
The Christmas works covered a broad package of infrastructure interventions, delivered by Scotland’s Rail Systems Alliance (RSA – a collaborative partnership organisation in the Scottish rail industry). These included plain line renewals, switches (points) and crossings renewals and refurbishment, culvert works, drainage improvements and extensive re-sleepering. Overhead line equipment and signalling works were also carried out, alongside measures to increase permitted line speeds. So – basically – the works. Over to Gerry McQuade in the video (apologies for the sleigh bells – it seemed like a good idea at the time, says Network Rail).
According to Network Rail, the upgrades will allow freight trains to move into and out of local terminals more quickly, improving efficiency and reliability for operators and their customers. Gerry McQuade, Capital Delivery Director for Network Rail Scotland, visited the site during the works and said the project was progressing well and on schedule. He described Mossend as “really important on Scotland’s Railway”, noting that the investment was critical for freight customers and long-term network performance.
Strategic context for Scottish freight
Network Rail emphasised that extensive engagement took place with freight customers in advance of the works to minimise disruption during the blockade. The works programme was planned specifically to deliver long-term resilience, while keeping impacts on operators as low as possible during one of the few windows available for such intensive intervention.
The investment comes against a backdrop of growing strategic focus on Mossend as a national freight hub. The neighbouring Coatbridge terminal changed hands in 2024, moving from Freightliner to the locally owned Russell RailRoad operation. Also, the long-term Mossend International Railfreight Park (MIRP) project is progressing ambitions to become Scotland’s first carbon-free rail terminal, reinforcing its role in decarbonising logistics while supporting economic growth.