, symbol_location = gb , symbol = rail , image = Motherwell Railway Station - geograph.org.uk - 699863.jpg , caption = Motherwell railway station at Platforms 1 and 2. Trains running on the

West Coast Main Line The West Coast Main Line (WCML) is one of the most important railway corridors in the United Kingdom, connecting the major cities of London and Glasgow with branches to Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester and Edinburgh. It is one of the busiest ...

stop here. , borough =

Motherwell Motherwell ( sco, Mitherwall, gd, Tobar na Màthar) is a town and former burgh in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom, south east of Glasgow. It has a population of around 32,120. Historically in the parish of Dalziel and part of Lanarks ...

North Lanarkshire North Lanarkshire ( sco, North Lanrikshire; gd, Siorrachd Lannraig a Tuath) is one of 32 council areas of Scotland. It borders the northeast of the City of Glasgow and contains many of Glasgow's suburbs and commuter towns and villages. It also ...

, country = Scotland , coordinates = , grid_name =

Grid reference A projected coordinate system, also known as a projected coordinate reference system, a planar coordinate system, or grid reference system, is a type of spatial reference system that represents locations on the Earth using cartesian coordin ...

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Network Rail Network Rail Limited is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, which was known as Railtrack plc before 2002) and infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. Network Rail is an "arm's leng ...

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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 ...

, platforms = 4 , code = MTH , transit_authority =

Strathclyde Partnership for Transport Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT) is a regional transport partnership for the Strathclyde area of western Scotland. It is responsible for planning and coordinating regional transport, especially the public transport system in the are ...

, mpassengers = , footnotes = Passenger statistics from the

Office of Rail and Road The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) is a non-ministerial government department responsible for the economic and safety regulation of Britain's railways, and the economic monitoring of National Highways. ORR regulates Network Rail by setting its ...

, mapframe=yes , mapframe-zoom = 14 MotherwellRailwayStation

Motherwell railway station serves

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

. It lies on the

(WCML), and is served also by

Argyle Line The Argyle Line is a suburban railway located in West Central Scotland. The line serves the commercial and shopping districts of Glasgow's central area, and connects towns from West Dunbartonshire to South Lanarkshire. Named for Glasgow's Argyl ...

trains of the

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

suburban railway network. It is the penultimate stop on the northbound WCML before Glasgow. There are four platforms of various length in use at Motherwell. The station is located next to the town's main shopping arcade,

Motherwell Shopping Centre Motherwell Shopping Centre is an outdoor shopping centre located in the centre of Motherwell, North Lanarkshire, Scotland. It is owned jointly by Chester Properties and Columbus Capital, who purchased the site from previous owners CALA Propertie ...

History

The first station in Motherwell was opened by the

Wishaw and Coltness Railway The Wishaw and Coltness Railway was an early Scottish mineral railway. It ran for approximately 11 miles from Chapel Colliery, at Newmains in North Lanarkshire connecting to the Monkland and Kirkintilloch Railway near Whifflet, giving a means o ...

on 8 May 1843 and was located at Orbiston. As Orbiston station was quite some distance from the rapidly expanding Motherwell town centre, the decision was taken 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 ...

to build a station at 'Lesmahagow Junction', the point where the Motherwell Deviation branch of the

Caledonian Railway Main Line The Caledonian Railway main line in Scotland connected Glasgow and Edinburgh with Carlisle, via Carstairs and Beattock. It was opened in 1847 by the Caledonian Railway. The approach to Glasgow used railways already built, primarily for minera ...

met the lines to

Mossend Mossend is a small town in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, located on the A775 road to the immediate east of its 'sister town' Bellshill, west of the villages of Holytown and New Stevenston, north of the larger town of Motherwell and south of the E ...

Hamilton Hamilton may refer to: People * Hamilton (name), a common British surname and occasional given name, usually of Scottish origin, including a list of persons with the surname ** The Duke of Hamilton, the premier peer of Scotland ** Lord Hamilt ...

and

Lesmahagow Lesmahagow ( ; sco, Lismahagie or ''Lesmahagae'', gd, Lios MoChuda) is a small town in the historic county of Lanarkshire on the edge of moorland, near Lanark in the central belt of Scotland. Lesmahagow was also a civil parish. It lies west o ...

. That Motherwell station was opened on 31 July 1885 on a site conveniently in the heart of the town which replaced the original station. The current station was built 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 ...

during the 1970s (on the same site) to coincide with the completion of electrification of the West Coast Main Line from Carlisle to Glasgow which was completed in 1974. It has four through platforms, crossed by two overbridges with the main buildings being above the level of the line between Platforms 2 and 3. At platform level between Platforms 2 and 3 there is also an

traincrew depot, staff car park and an office of the

British Transport Police , nativename = , abbreviation = BTP , patch = , patchcaption = , logo = British Transport Police Logo.svg , logocaption = Logo of the British Transport Police , badge = , badgecaption = , f ...

. These are accessible via a gated rampway leading to street level. Beyond Platform 4 are some electrified sidings used for the stabling of trains overnight. Diagrams are nominally worked so that these units will only stay at Motherwell for one night before returning to their allocated depot.

Services

Local services departing to and from the station are provided by

and the majority of northbound services serve Glasgow Central (either terminating at the High Level station or passing through the Low Level station en route to or ), whilst southbound

services terminate at or . There is one train per hour to Edinburgh Waverley via Shotts. ScotRail also provide limited services (up to two per day) to and .

TransPennine Express TransPennine Express (TPE), legally First TransPennine Express Limited, is a British train operating company owned by FirstGroup that operates the TransPennine Express franchise. It runs regional and inter-city rail services between the major c ...

provides a 2 hourly service to both Glasgow Central and Manchester Airport. On weekends there is a limited service to Liverpool Lime Street (one every Saturday, two every Sunday).

Avanti West Coast Avanti West Coast is a train operating company in the United Kingdom owned by FirstGroup (70%) and Trenitalia (30%) that operates the West Coast Partnership franchise. During November 2016, the Department for Transport (DfT) announced the Inter ...

provide 6 trains per day northbound to Glasgow Central (1 of which is set down only) and 9 trains per day southbound, 8 of these go to London Euston while the last one terminates at Crewe. London North Eastern provide 1 train per day to Motherwell between Glasgow Central and London King's Cross.

CrossCountry CrossCountry (legal name XC Trains Limited) is a train operating company in the United Kingdom owned by Arriva UK Trains, operating the Cross Country franchise. The CrossCountry franchise was restructured by the Department for Transport (DfT) ...

call roughly every two hours to Glasgow Central and Edinburgh Waverley with most eastbound services extending to , and via and .GB NRT, Table 51 A limited number run beyond Plymouth through to . Motherwell is unusual in that Glasgow Central can be reached via trains from three different platforms going in two different directions. Glasgow is generally north-west of Motherwell, but trains can depart via the West Coast Main Line in the Motherwell deviation going north, or by the Hamilton Circle going south. The same can also be said for services to Lanark, which is south-east of Motherwell. Trains can depart towards Lanark going south via Shieldmuir, or initially north via Holytown (though this route is not normally used for timetabled trains since the December 2014 timetable alterations were implemented). During times of disruption such as the closure of the West Coast Main Line between and Law Junction for engineering works, Avanti West Coast and CrossCountry services can be diverted along the Hamilton Circle and Wishaw Deviation (and sometimes the line to Edinburgh via ) and will use Platforms 3 and 4. Trains provided by London North Eastern Railway will generally be suspended in this event as their drivers do not have the required route knowledge. In general, a replacement bus service will operate from Motherwell, and passengers from Glasgow are advised to travel to Edinburgh via Glasgow Queen Street.

Platforms

*Platform 1 is used for all southbound InterCity services as well as local services to Carstairs and

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

. Services to Lanark use this platform every half hour. Lanark departures from this platform travel via Shieldmuir. *Platform 2 is used for all northbound InterCity services to Glasgow Central as well as local northbound services to Glasgow Central from Edinburgh and Carstairs. Services from Lanark to Glasgow Central via also use this platform. *Platform 3 is used by services to Glasgow Central via Hamilton. Services on the Hamilton Circle line to Glasgow which have arrived via Whifflet also use this platform. One train a day from Edinburgh via Shotts terminates here. In addition on Sundays, trains from Motherwell to Glasgow Central via Bellshill use this platform. *Platform 4 is used by all services on the Hamilton Circle to Glasgow which have arrived via Hamilton, as well as those terminating here to return via Hamilton. Also trains to Cumbernauld use this platform hourly.

References

External links

{{Railway stations served by TransPennine Express Railway stations in North Lanarkshire Former Caledonian Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1885 Railway stations served by ScotRail Railway stations served by Caledonian Sleeper Railway stations served by CrossCountry SPT railway stations Railway stations served by TransPennine Express Railway stations served by Avanti West Coast Railway stations served by London North Eastern Railway Buildings and structures in Motherwell Stations on the West Coast Main Line