Network Rail fits six months of Fife wiring work into 18 days

Network Rail has completed in an 18-day closure of the Fife Circle work it says could have taken up to six months of weekend possessions, as it prepares 118 km of Fife railway for overhead wires and battery-electric trains. Lines were shut from 10 to 27 October while teams worked around the clock, according to a Network Rail statement published on 29 October.

The main task was clearance for the wires. Three bridges, at Bennochy Road in Kirkcaldy, Muriespot near Coaltown of Balgonie and Main Street in Thornton, were demolished and are being rebuilt higher, using 29 new concrete beams. On the Leven line, which reopened to passengers in 2024, crews installed more than 200 foundations, 20 steel structures and four masts for the overhead line equipment.

Signalling was the other strand. Network Rail replaced 26 pieces of older equipment around Burntisland and carried out further upgrades between North Queensferry and Kirkcaldy. Platforms at Cardenden were modified and more than 209,000 square metres of lineside vegetation were cleared. Michael McArthur, Network Rail Scotland's project manager, said the teams had worked through Storm Boelo and other poor weather, and that there was "a lot more still to do".

The programme is funded by the Scottish Government. The infrastructure manager puts the cost at £311.5m for 118 km of electrification in Fife. When ministers announced the scheme in September 2025, Transport Scotland gave a wider figure of more than £342m for about 140 km across Fife and the Borders, with the Leven route treated as a separate £116m project. We covered that announcement at the time.

Wires first, trains still to be ordered

The trains that will use the wires have not yet been chosen. ScotRail issued an invitation to negotiate in August 2026 to Alstom, CAF, Hitachi, Siemens and Stadler for at least 69 electric and battery-electric units, with options for 37 more, for Fife, the Borders, East Kilbride and inner Glasgow suburban routes, according to Rail Business UK. Entry into service is planned for the early 2030s. Until then, Fife Circle services stay with diesel units such as ScotRail's Class 158.

Battery traction changes the economics of the scheme. A battery unit charges under the wires and runs on its own power over unwired gaps, so Network Rail does not have to electrify every structure or every kilometre to remove diesel from a route. The bridge rebuilds show where the money goes: each low structure must be raised or reconstructed before 25 kV equipment can pass underneath. The signalling renewals are typical of electrification projects, because existing track circuits and cabling must withstand interference from traction current, although the statement does not set out the purpose of each item.

The blockade approach also has a cost for passengers, which Network Rail acknowledged. Concentrating three bridge demolitions, foundation work and signalling in one closure avoids months of weekend replacement buses, but it shifts the disruption into a single fortnight. The statement gives no completion date for the remaining work. The next milestone to watch is ScotRail's choice of train builder, which will set when battery-electric services can start on the wires now going up.

Sources: Network Rail, "Six months of electrification work delivered in 18 days on Fife railway" (29/10/2026); Transport Scotland, "New battery-electric trains announced for Fife and Borders railway" (05/09/2025); Rail Business UK, "Five shortlisted to renew Scottish suburban rolling stock fleet" (01/09/2026).

Photo: a ScotRail Class 158 at Leven station, Fife, on 2 June 2024. Rosser1954, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

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