From Infrastructure Intelligence, on 5th April 2019 and reported by ….?
‘Work on the fifth electrified route between Scotland’s largest cities has been celebrated after being completed on time and on budget. Not only will it mean a reduction in noise and better air quality for those who live and work near the railway, the upgraded line will allow for the introduction of modern, electric trains from May and more seats on services between Glasgow Central and Edinburgh. Funded by the Scottish Government, the investment was made to add resilience and capacity into the network to cater for projected growth in passenger numbers from towns such as Livingston and West Calder into Edinburgh in the east and from Cleland and Shotts into Glasgow in the west.’
Talking-up Scotland 
Jackie Bird will be all over this next week.
She will be behind rhe camera writing the scripts
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Was this reported on the BBC? I have checked back on ‘Sounds’ to prowl amongst the (misdated) archive, but can find no mention, but that is not to claim that it was not reported.
What is noteworthy is, if we cast our minds back to when the works at Queen St commenced. In the 3/4 days before the works started, Reporting Scotland was being broadcast live from the station, with reporters breathlessly reporting the impending ‘chaos’. Now, Network Rail, Scotrail and Transport Scotland had made significant efforts maintaining services, either by transfer to low level or to Central and had made arrangements for passenger queuing. When the big day arrived, things went swimmingly. Vox pops with passengers – and I am sure they searched for the curmudgeons – were wholly benign, with people explaining that they had been well informed in advance, knew what the changes were and had planned accordingly. The disppointment in the voices of the reporters and in the studio was almost tangible. After 3/4 days, the programme moved back to the studion and forgot about Queen St.
Now that a major task has been completed on time – and remember this included having to make fairly significant changes to gantries and electricity lines in the Queen St Tunnel – there is not a cheep on BBC Scotland.
In a few days, pairs of platforms will be taken out of use to put in the extensions towards George Square to allow for longer, new trains in a few months. Again this has been well trailed by the various organisations and in 2020, we should have the new station and rolling stock.
However, an SNP MSP has called for a culling of pigeons in Glasgow and that gave Nomedia the chance to talk about the people whose deaths had been CAUSED by pigeon droppings. Anent pigeons and other avians – from time to time all cities get plagued by a sudden explosion in the population of some species or other. I can remember one about starlings which were eventually chased away and another about gulls. Data is indicating that pigeon numbers in Glasgow are increasing and the MSP was advocating various humane ways of reducing the population such as by removing eggs from nests and replacing them by dummies. On a smaller scale, there is a flock of parakeets in Victoria Park, and while they are colourful and musical are an invasive species and need to be removed.
All of that plus the departure of anpther Bird has been enough to occupy the BBC who wants to know about one of the most heavily used rail services in Europe, especially when it is doing well?
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