WORK has started to upgrade a one mile stretch of Glasgow's flagship Fastlink bus route following a number of accidents involving pedestrians.

Buses were banned from using dedicated lanes on the Broomielaw in October when two pedestrians were knocked down in less than two weeks.

Concerns were raised people were putting themselves at risk by stepping out onto the Fastlink lane without paying attention to the traffic.

A survey was carried out of the number of pedestrians crossing the road at the accident spot and a meeting was held between the city council, Police Scotland and Strathclyde Partnership for Transport.

It will result in a number of new measures being put in place to encourage people to use the official crossings.

Work has now started on installing pedestrian guard rails, landscape planting, additional road markings including arrows painted onto the carriageway and extra signs to highlight the fact traffic travels in both directions.

It is expected all the new measures will be completed by the end of next week.

Similar work will be carried out on other sections of the Fastlink route on the Broomielaw resulting in phased closure of sections of the route.

All new roads are subject to detailed checks once they are being used by traffic to identify any safety issues.

An allowance is made in the project budget to cover the cost of any changes deemed to be necessary following the audit.

A city council spokeswoman said: "Concerns were raised about pedestrians putting themselves at risk by stepping onto the Fastlink lane without heeding the traffic. It is imperative people pay attention to their surroundings and cross safely."

The Broomielaw is home to the city's financial services district and is busy with pedestrians during the morning and evening rush-hours and at lunchtimes.

Bus drivers are understood to have become increasingly concerned about the number of people stepping out while being distracted by mobile phones.

One industry source said: People are tuned into their phones, earphones on, maybe playing Pokemon Go and are not paying enough attention.

"It is perhaps an education issue to get people to appreciate the busway is a busway and has to be treated as such."