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A new £5.9m railway bridge has been rolled into position in West Dunbartonshire while the line is closed until the new year.

Network Rail said teams faced an “intense nine-day engineering sprint” to complete the work near Bowling harbour after trains stopped on Christmas Eve.

The 1,860 tonne concrete structure was moved into position on Boxing Day.

Replacement buses are running from Dalmuir and Balloch/Helensburgh Central and between Glasgow and Crianlarich until trains resume on 2 January.

The new bridge will open up additional direct road access in the area – a former Exxon industrial site on the banks of the Clyde.

It is hoped the project will aid development of the Bowling Strategic Development Site, led by West Dunbartonshire Council.

Laura Craig, scheme project manager at Network Rail Scotland, said: “Building such a huge bridge on site and then moving it into position is an incredible task, and it’s been amazing to see the planning and teamwork come together so successfully.

The £5.9m project is being funded as part of the Glasgow City Region Deal, a package agreed between the UK and Scottish governments with local authorities in a bid to improve infrastructure and economic growth.

Councillor David McBride, West Dunbartonshire Council’s infrastructure convener, said: “This is a landmark moment in this major project and I am delighted to see such significant progress on the site.

“While there has been some disruption on the trains, this has been minimised by the work being carried out over the festive period.”

Rail services on a route between Kent and East Sussex are being disrupted by a signalling system fault, a rail operator said.

Southern said services travelling between Ashford International and Hastings/Eastbourne are delayed by up to 30 minutes while engineers carry our repairs.

The incident was first reported by the company shortly after 07:00 GMT, stating the issue lay with track circuits used to detect trains.

It said some trains on the single-track route may run to a revised calling pattern, or terminate/restart at Hastings.

Dozens of new electric buses are now in service as part of a multi-million-pound project, a transport firm said.

Plymouth Citybus and Go Cornwall Bus said 50 zero-emission double-deckers were operating across routes in Plymouth and the Rame peninsula as part of a project to replace almost half of its fleet with “cleaner, quieter and more accessible vehicles”.

The vehicles were added to the fleet through a £31.87m project jointly funded by bus operators, the Department for Transport, Plymouth City Council and Cornwall Council.

Richard Stevens, managing director of Plymouth Citybus and Go Cornwall Bus, said the electric buses marked an “important moment” for the firms.