THE Scottish Transport Minister has formally opened the restored £300 million line between Airdrie and Bathgate, almost three months after passengers were first carried on the route. However, although all stations are now open, problems with new trains mean that the planned timetable can’t be provided yet.

The 24km line, which links the previous services between Edinburgh and Bathgate with those from Glasgow to Airdrie and Drumgelloch, should have opened in full in December, but winter weather and problems with new Siemens units built in Germany meant that the initial service had to be less ambitious than hoped.

As a result, the ceremony by transport minister Keith Brown on Tuesday this week marked the end of a slow unveiling rather than a comprehensive launch.

When trains started running on 13 December only Bathgate, Blackridge and Airdrie could be served on the new line. Caldercruix followed on 13 February, Armadale (pictured, under construction) opened last Friday, 4 March, and finally Drumgelloch, which had been the terminus of the old Glasgow service but is now a through station on a new site, opened to passengers on Sunday – just two days before the minister arrived.

Bad weather was blamed for the station delays. Network Rail said: ‘With snow and ice covering the stations throughout December, construction of access roads and other facilities at Armadale, Caldercruix and Drumgelloch had to be suspended until early 2011.’

But trains were in short supply, too. The line is using Alstom-built Class 334s cascaded from the Ayrshire Coast and Inverclyde routes, where they are being replaced by new Siemens Class 380 units.

These units are high specification, spacious commuter trains, with 2+2 seating throughout and power sockets under the numerous tables.

But commissioning of the trains as they arrived from Germany encountered problems during the autumn, apparently in connection with on-board software, and by the time Airdrie-Bathgate was due to open only a few 334s could be spared.

Matters are now improving. ScotRail doubled the service to half-hourly during the day from Monday, and promised that frequencies would increase ‘over time’ between Glasgow Queen Street Low Level and Edinburgh Waverley, with trains running every 15 minutes ‘within a matter of months’.