The easy bit would be extending the line to run through EK to the north - go under the road, knock some houses down and take over a cycle path. But then you've got to go through some new houses, a retail park and across a dual carriageway. At Blantyre you've got to rebuild the Craighead viaduct, go through lots of houses and across more roads - all so that people from EK can get to Hamilton or Motherwell town centre? Not happening.
It all depends on what is required in the order of freight logistics. Regular cement trains, engineers trains, Tyne Dock to Mossend or Grangemouth containers, occasional specials, the alcans, Torness to Sellafield nuclear flasks, and there are voyager movements around the sub to craigentinny or Polmadie, we're due 4 Caledonian sleeper movements from 1am on Saturday morning! And not forgetting the Glasgow Central to Waverley which passes by my flat around the 22:15 Mark most nights, and the Fife circles coming from Motherwell /Polmadie and the return leg of the journey. There is a fair bit of action around the sub most times, but it can still accommodate more freight movements, but it's all down to paths. It can and does have quiet spells from time to time. Hope this helps!
Not to mention the monthly delivery of a refurbished HST (we hope,)
I thought it was just for route knowledge retention, so if running late would go direct... Which is partly why I haven't risked a very late Edinburgh arrival via Glasgow just to enjoy the delights of the South Sub. (Also partly because I am lucky enough to have already done it on a freight train - in both directions too!)
If the timescale is genuine and this is the next scheme to be undertaken it would suggest that the rolling programme of electrification has ended.
But, easy or not, you can't actually complete the job without feet on the ground. Preferably people who have done it before, and who have a loyalty or commitment to their job. All preparations are wasted without people out at night putting in masts and on top of wiring trains (or in a cherry-picker of some sort) actually drilling holes in bridges and tunnels and fixing brackets etc.
Oh, I don't think that @Bald Rick meant the work itself was easy, just that there's a lot of politics involved in getting those boots on the ground in the first place.
In that case I would say that they are very lucky indeed to have had continuous employment... pity that the hands-on people can't expect to benefit from the same luxury!
True to some extent, but a lot of these are general construction skills that can be kept up to date on other railway or even non-railway projects, and others are relatively simple to train up (or should be if the installation process has been properly thought through). The really critical skills are around OLE design and costing, developing those installation processes and in particular understanding how an OLE project interacts with the rest of the railway, what the risks are and how to avoid them next time round.
Good linemen and good electrification teams are not as readily available or as easy to train as you seem to think. It took years to build up a decent electrification capability in Scotland and It will take years to replace if electrification doesn't start again soon. Regardless, it will still take time to get back to the same degree of efficiency never mind surpass it, which should be the target.
Glasgow's North Clyde lines were electrified in 1960. That infrastructure must be coming up for large-scale renewal soon.
If the demands on it have remained more or less the same then rolling maintenance is all that's needed.
To be honest, I haven't really noted anything of that nature, but I will try to keep a lookout for movements! But back to the Electrification topic, would more clearance work be required further along the Sub loop, for instance the bridges at Woodburn Terrace, Oswald Road and Blackford Avenue and Myreside road?
Was work done to the named bridges for W12 clearance? If so you'd hope that it was done with future electrification in mind.
Assuming that the bridge deck doesn't have to be raised, couldn't you make a change below the parapet by adding a portal structure over the railway?
