Clarkston railway station is a suburban

side platform A side platform (also known as a marginal platform or a single-face platform) is a platform positioned to the side of one or more railway tracks or guideways at a railway station, tram stop, or transitway. A station having dual side platforms ...

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

in the town of Clarkston,

East Renfrewshire East Renfrewshire ( sco, Aest Renfrewshire; gd, Siorrachd Rinn Friù an Ear) is one of 32 council areas of Scotland. Until 1975, it formed part of the county of Renfrewshire for local government purposes along with the modern council areas of ...

, Scotland. The station is managed by

ScotRail ScotRail Trains Limited, trading as ScotRail ( gd, Rèile na h-Alba), is a Scottish train operating company that is publicly owned by Scottish Rail Holdings on behalf of the Scottish Government. It has been operating the ScotRail franchise a ...

and is on the

East Kilbride East Kilbride (; gd, Cille Bhrìghde an Ear ) is the largest town in South Lanarkshire in Scotland and the country's sixth-largest locality by population. It was also designated Scotland's first new town on 6 May 1947. The area lies on a rais ...

branch of the

Glasgow South Western Line The Glasgow South Western Line is a mainline railway in Scotland that runs from Glasgow to Kilmarnock, and then either via Dumfries, or Stranraer via Ayr, with a branch to East Kilbride. History The line was built by several railway compan ...

. It was opened in 1866 by the

Busby Railway The Busby Railway is a short railway line built on the south side of Glasgow, connecting the (at the time) small villages of Thornliebank, Giffnock, Clarkston and Busby and later Thorntonhall and East Kilbride with the city. It opened in two st ...

History

The station was opened by the

on 1 January 1866. Services were subsequently extended through to East Kilbride by the

Caledonian Railway The Caledonian Railway (CR) was a major Scottish railway company. It was formed in the early 19th century with the objective of forming a link between English railways and Glasgow. It progressively extended its network and reached Edinburgh an ...

two years later and eventually to High Blantyre (on the

Hamilton and Strathaven Railway The Hamilton and Strathaven Railway was a historic railway in Scotland. It ran from a junction with the Hamilton Branch of the Caledonian Railway to a terminus at Strathaven. The railway was worked from the start by the Caledonian Railway, who a ...

), though the section beyond East Kilbride closed back in the 1940s. A further pair of connections to the

Lanarkshire and Ayrshire Railway The Lanarkshire and Ayrshire Railway (L&AR) was an independent railway company built to provide the Caledonian Railway with a shorter route for mineral traffic from the coalfields of Lanarkshire to Ardrossan Harbour, in Scotland. It opened in st ...

were subsequently constructed around 1903-4 by the latter company, though only the south to west one saw regular traffic and even then for just a few months. Proposals put forward by

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British rai ...

in the early 1980s would have seen the former south to east curve reinstated to allow East Kilbride trains to be re-routed via , and to Glasgow Central. The scheme would have seen the branch electrified but the Clarkston to Busby Junction portion closed, along with and stations. The plans were not well received and were eventually dropped.

Services

The station has a half-hourly service in each direction (including Sundays) to and .

References

Notes

Sources

* * *
RAILSCOT on Busby Railway

External links

Historical timetables, maps and satellite imagery for Clarkston railway station. See ''Timetable World - The online collection of historical transport timetables and maps from around the world''
Railway stations in East Renfrewshire SPT railway stations Railway stations served by ScotRail Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1866 Former Caledonian Railway stations 1866 establishments in Scotland Clarkston, East Renfrewshire {{Scotland-railstation-stub