Train passengers in Helensburgh are set to benefit from "essential" upgrades made to local railway lines over the festive period.

The area saw a signalling system update to help improve the timekeeping of the North Clyde and West Highland Line, including the modernisation of several level crossings to increase safety.

The upgrades were completed as part of Network Rail’s multimillion-pound nationwide programme to improve reliability.

Jeremy Spence, route delivery director at Network Rail Scotland, said: “I’m delighted to see our £15m programme of investment over the festive period has been completed on time.

“These essential upgrades will improve the railway for passengers and freight customers.

“The festive period is a critical time when we can carry out these huge projects while fewer trains are running.

“Completing this amount of work in such a short space of time is a huge challenge, so I want to thank my many colleagues from Network Rail and our contractors for giving up their Christmas to help us to improve Scotland’s Railway.”

Helensburgh trains were suspended from 11pm on Sunday, December 31 until 5.25am on Wednesday, January 3 while the repairs were underway.

However, the works only caused one day of disruption as services were due to finish early on Hogmanay, and no ScotRail trains were running on any route on January 1.

READ MORE: Helensburgh train disruption: details of New Year works

Other work was carried out on railway lines across the country.

The programme included maintenance and repair work in the tunnels between Partick and Queen Street in Glasgow and the installation of new drainage systems at Princes St Gardens and Haymarket station in Edinburgh to help the railway better deal with extreme weather.