The Glasgow–Edinburgh via Falkirk line is a mainline

railway line Rail terminology is a form of technical terminology. The difference between the American term ''railroad'' and the international term ''railway'' (used by the International Union of Railways and English-speaking countries outside the United Sta ...

linking

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 pop ...

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 ...

via

Falkirk Falkirk ( gd, An Eaglais Bhreac, sco, Fawkirk) is a large town in the Central Lowlands of Scotland, historically within the county of Stirlingshire. It lies in the Forth Valley, northwest of Edinburgh and northeast of Glasgow. Falkirk had a ...

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 th ...

. It is the principal route out of the five rail links between Scotland's two biggest cities, hosting the flagship "Shuttle" service between and . A typical service calls at Glasgow Queen Street, Croy, Falkirk High, Haymarket and Edinburgh or Glasgow Queen Street, Falkirk High, Polmont, Linlithgow, Haymarket and Edinburgh.

History

The route has historic significance as it was Scotland's first inter-city railway, opening on 2 February 1842 as the

Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway The Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway was authorised by Act of Parliament on 4 July 1838. It was opened to passenger traffic on 21 February 1842, between its Glasgow Queen Street railway station (sometimes referred to at first as Dundas Street) and ...

.Robertson(1983). Chapter 3, Section II: ''The essential link: Edinburgh to Glasgow'', Pp 99-120. It later became a key constituent of the

North British Railway The North British Railway was a British railway company, based in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was established in 1844, with the intention of linking with English railways at Berwick. The line opened in 1846, and from the outset the company followe ...

.Awdry (1990); Page 128.

Electrification

The line was electrified in the 2010s. It was anticipated that electric Class 380 trains would start running from May 2017, followed by new Class 385 trains from September 2017. However, delays to the electrification project mean the 380s did not run until December 2017 and the 385s did not run until July 2018.

Places served

The route serves the following places (

Ordnance Survey Ordnance Survey (OS) is the national mapping agency for Great Britain. The agency's name indicates its original military purpose (see ordnance and surveying), which was to map Scotland in the wake of the Jacobite rising of 1745. There was ...

grid references for stations):

Services

Passenger services are operated 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 ...

. The line is

electrified Electrification is the process of powering by electricity and, in many contexts, the introduction of such power by changing over from an earlier power source. The broad meaning of the term, such as in the history of technology, economic histor ...

. The "(Glasgow Queen Street-Edinburgh Haymarket) Shuttle" weekday day time service pattern sees a train every 15 minutes from Glasgow/Edinburgh. All trains stop at Falkirk High and Haymarket, with selected trains stopping at Croy, Polmont and Linlithgow. The Sunday service sees a train every 30 minutes from Glasgow/Edinburgh with all trains calling at Falkirk High and Haymarket and a train every hour at Croy, Polmont and Linlithgow. However, both Linlithgow and Polmont also benefit from the Edinburgh–Dunblane line every half hour on a Sunday.

Rolling stock

1950s/60s

As part of a review by the

British Transport Commission The British Transport Commission (BTC) was created by Clement Attlee's post-war Labour government as a part of its nationalisation programme, to oversee railways, canals and road freight transport in Great Britain (Northern Ireland had the se ...

report in 1952, the services were provided by the 1956 batch of Class 126 DMU, entering service in 1957.

1970s

In 1971, the stock provided changed to locomotives fitted for Blue Star

multiple working On the UK rail network, multiple working is where two or more traction units (locomotives, diesel multiple-units or electric multiple-units) are coupled together in such a way that they are all under the control of one driver (multiple-unit ...

. Initially a mixture of Class 25, Class 27 and Class 37 at each end of a rake of Mark 2 carriages through wired and piped to provide "push-pull" working. This very quickly settled down to a dedicated pool of Class 27 locomotives.

1980s

In 1980, the push-pull sets were replaced by single Class 47/7s at one end of a rake of Mark 3 carriages and a DBSO operating with TDM system. Also during this period,

InterCity InterCity (commonly abbreviated ''IC'' on timetables and tickets) is the classification applied to certain long-distance passenger train services in Europe. Such trains (in contrast to regional, local, or commuter trains) generally call at ma ...

provided through services from Glasgow Queen Street to

London King's Cross King's Cross railway station, also known as London King's Cross, is a passenger railway terminus in the London Borough of Camden, on the edge of Central London. It is in the London station group, one of the busiest stations in the United Kin ...

and various

West Country The West Country (occasionally Westcountry) is a loosely defined area of South West England, usually taken to include all, some, or parts of the counties of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset, Bristol, and, less commonly, Wiltshire, Glouce ...

destinations, resulting in the use of

InterCity 125 The InterCity 125 (originally Inter-City 125New trai ...

s on the route. At this time, the service operated on a half-hourly frequency with all trains stopping at Haymarket and Falkirk High, with alternate trains stopping at Polmont and Linlithgow. Some peak hour trains stopped at Bishopbriggs, Lenzie and Croy. Sunday trains served . In 1984 the

Polmont rail accident The Polmont rail accident, also known as the Polmont rail disaster, occurred on 30July 1984 to the west of Polmont, near Falkirk, in Scotland. A westbound push-pull express train travelling from Edinburgh to Glasgow struck a cow, which had gai ...

, where a train hit a cow on the track (part of the cow's leg was trapped in the bogie of the train, lifting it off the track) resulted in 13 deaths and 61 injuries. It led to a debate about the safety of push-pull trains.Stead, Jean. "'Push pull' trains to be altered after death crash inquiry / Call for safer trains after derailment in Scotland". ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide ...

'', London. 22 February 1985. In the late 1980s with the electrification of the

Great Eastern Main Line The Great Eastern Main Line (GEML, sometimes referred to as the East Anglia Main Line) is a major railway line on the British railway system which connects Liverpool Street station in central London with destinations in east London and th ...

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 ra ...

, the DBSO set-up was planned for replacement with Class 158 in four and six car formations, however due to delays in deliveries and the need to release the stock for the Great Eastern Main Line, Class 156 were used for a short period, prior to being put into use on the

Far North Line The Far North Line is a rural railway line entirely within the Highland area of Scotland, extending from Inverness to Thurso and Wick. As the name suggests, it is the northernmost railway in the United Kingdom. The line is entirely single- ...

1990s/2000s

Delivery of the Class 170s since 1999 has displaced the Class 158s for other duties, including the Far North Line. Other motive power can be seen as a result of operational considerations including Classes 156 and 158.

Present day

Since electrification of the line in 2017, services have been operated by s from July 2018. Since October 2018 HSTs have been introduced on long-distance services that use parts of the route.

References

Sources

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