Commuters face five months of travel chaos after Scotrail announced plans to close the tunnel at a busy city centre station for 20 weeks.
The Glasgow Queen Street station tunnel will close on March 20 as part of The Scotrail Alliance'sa £60m project to renew nearly 2km of ageing slab-track.
The upgrade work will allow faster, longer, greener trains to operate on the route later this year.
The tunnel will reopen on August 8.
Scotrail said that trains will continue to run but journeys will take longer.
Trains that normally run in and out of Queen Street High Level will now be diverted to either Queen Street Low Level or Glasgow Central. The works will result in changes to existing timetables and longer journey times.
Additional carriages will be added to services that are running and queueing systems will be in place at Glasgow Queen Street and Edinburgh Waverley at peak times.
Phil Verster, managing director of the ScotRail Alliance, said: “Glasgow Queen Street is one of the busiest stations in Scotland. Every day, tens of thousands of people travel through the station on their way to work, to college or university or to visit friends. People will still be able to do that while the tunnel is closed - the railway is still very much open for business. However, they will see changes to their normal journey. We want to make sure that everyone understands what these change mean for them.
“That is why we are launching our biggest ever public information campaign. In the run up to the closure we will be speaking directly to our customers, to businesses, and to public bodies to give them the information they need and to answer any questions that they might have.
“Upgrading the tunnel will allow us to run faster, longer, greener trains in the future. This will mean more seats, shorter journey times and less impact on our environment. The long term benefits of this investment will be considerable, not just for our railway, but also for the country.”
Transport Minister Derek Mackay said: “This is a significant milestone in our £5 billion programme of investment in Scotland’s Railway which is helping to reverse decades of under-investment and substantially modernise our rail infrastructure.
“This is a once in a generation project and one of the most ambitious ever planned on the Edinburgh-Glasgow route. The works will support the introduction of a new generation of faster, quieter and greener electric trains on routes across the Central Belt next year.
“Although I understand that this work will cause some inconvenience to passengers, the ScotRail Alliance is working to ensure that services are maintained where possible, disruption is kept to a minimum and that passengers are kept well informed throughout the work.
“I would like to thank passengers in advance for their cooperation and understanding during the tunnel closure.”
Customers can check their own journey online now, with full timetables available to download from 20 February.
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