Minister visits as new £41m transport hub for Edinburgh nears completion

A £41m Edinburgh train and tram station, which will link the Scottish capital with passengers from Fife and the north, is nearing completion. Scottish government transport minister Humza Yousaf visited the new Edinburgh Gateway this week to observe engineers putting the final touches to the new £41 million station.

Construction staff have been on site since January 2015 working on the new interchange, which will serve passengers accessing Edinburgh airport and transferring onto the tram network. With the main building work just days away from completion, the new station remains on track to open for passengers in December this year.

The project is part of the Scottish Government-funded Edinburgh Glasgow Improvement Programme. Visiting the site this week, Humza Yousaf said: “This £41m development is a great example of how the Scottish Government is investing to make public transport more accessible and attractive by linking up journeys across different modes of travel.

“When it opens this new station will offer huge benefits to rail passengers travelling to or from the Gogar area, providing a convenient link between the tram network and Edinburgh Airport.”

Being delivered by Balfour Beatty, the project includes a step-free access bridge to link the platforms in the station and connect to the tram stop via lifts and escalators, while an underpass beneath the A8 will give pedestrian access from the nearby Gyle shopping centre. Edinburgh gateway will have 265m-long, ten-car platforms and around 1,500 square metres of concourse and circulation space.

Phil Verster, managing director of the ScotRail Alliance, commented: “Our engineers have worked hard to deliver this project as quickly as possible for passengers. This new station will help to transform the way people travel, opening up new options for those wishing to access the tram network and Edinburgh Airport.”

The government’s Edinburgh Glasgow Improvement Programme, of which the gateway project is part, is delivering a rolling programme of electrification across the central belt of Scotland, reducing journey times and increasing capacity on routes by improving the infrastructure to enable faster, greener trains to run.