More than £23 million is to be invested in infrastructure improvements across Scotland's railway this Easter.

Network Rail said more than 2,500 staff will work around 40,000 hours on projects across the central belt, in the south west and in the north east of Scotland.

Key schemes include rebuilding Livingston South Station and continuing work on electrifying the Edinburgh-Glasgow via Shotts line. In addition, more than a kilometre of new track will be laid on the West Coast Main Line at Carstairs, while further progress will be made on a £100 million signalling system renewal around the south of Glasgow.

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Elsewhere, new tracks and drainage system upgrades will be delivered underneath the West Coast Main Line at Lockerbie, while in the north east engineers will alter five bridges between Abedeeen and Inverurie as they prepare  to double-track the railway.

Overall, up to £118m worth of work will be carried out at more than 400 locations across Britain.

Mark Carne, chief executive at Network Rail, said: "This Easter, thousands of rail workers will be working round the clock to deliver crucial upgrades to the rail network as part of the £50bn Railway Upgrade Plan.

"This huge investment programme will provide faster, better services and help relieve over-crowding to respond to the huge growth on Britain's railways.

"While most of the network is open for business as usual, some routes are heavily affected and so we strongly advise passengers to plan ahead this Easter."

(LM/MH)