The Motherwell–Cumbernauld line is a suburban

railway line Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of land transport, next to road ...

linking

Motherwell Motherwell (, ) is a List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, town and former burgh in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom, south east of Glasgow. It has a population of around 32,120. Shires of Scotland, Historically in the p ...

and

Cumbernauld Cumbernauld (; ) is a large town in the Shires of Scotland, historic county of Dunbartonshire and council area of North Lanarkshire, Scotland. It is the tenth List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, most-populous locality in Scotl ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

. It is part of the

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 ar ...

network.

History

The line was built as part of the: * Wishaw and Coltness Railway between and *

Garnkirk and Glasgow Railway The Garnkirk and Glasgow Railway was an early railway built primarily to carry coal to Glasgow and other markets from the Monkland coalfields, shortening the journey and bypassing the monopolistic charges of the Monkland Canal; passenger traffic ...

between and Gartsherrie South Junction *

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

between Gartsherrie Junction and . The line had previously been used by a limited number of through Inter-City passenger trains between Motherwell and

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

up until the end of the 1980s, having earlier served as part of the

Caledonian Railway The Caledonian Railway (CR) was one of the two biggest of the five major Scottish railway companies prior to the 1923 Grouping. It was formed in 1845 with the objective of forming a link between English railways and Glasgow. It progressively ex ...

's main trunk route avoiding Glasgow. The surviving trains (the

London Euston Euston railway station ( ; or London Euston) is a major central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station managed by Network Rail in the London Borough of Camden. It is the southern terminus of the West Coast Main Line ...

to ''Clansman'' daytime through service and the ''Royal Highlander'' overnight sleeper) had subsequently been diverted away (via

Edinburgh Waverley Edinburgh Waverley (also known simply as Edinburgh; ) is the principal railway station serving Edinburgh, Scotland. It is the second busiest station in Scotland, after Glasgow Central. The station serves as the northern terminus of the East C ...

) by 1990, leaving only the Motherwell–Coatbridge Central section in use 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 Arg ...

local trains. In May 1996 the SPT introduced a new timetable on the line, that saw an hourly diesel service through to Cumbernauld alongside an hourly electric service that terminated at Coatbridge Central. Between 1996 & 2000 this was worked by Class 101s. This allowed the Argyle Line services to be re-routed elsewhere from January 2003 (eventually to via ) whilst offering a new range of journey opportunities for the intermediate stations en route. A limited number of peak-hour electric services via the Hamilton Circle were retained for commuters and these still operate today.

Infrastructure

The line is now electrified at

25 kV AC Railway electrification systems using alternating current (AC) at are used worldwide, especially for high-speed rail. It is usually supplied at the standard utility frequency (typically 50 or 60Hz), which simplifies traction substations. The dev ...

overhead throughout - the wires having been extended to Cumbernauld from their former limit at Gartsherrie South Junction (north of ) in the spring of 2014 as part of the

Cumbernauld Line The Cumbernauld Line is a suburban railway line linking Glasgow to Falkirk via Cumbernauld in Scotland. Since May 2014, the newly electrified track between Springburn and Cumbernauld has become an extension of the North Clyde network. Service ...

electrification scheme. Passenger services are operated by

ScotRail ScotRail Trains Limited, trading as ScotRail (), 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 as an operator of las ...

on behalf of

SPT SPT may refer to: Organisations * Society for Philosophy and Technology * Strathclyde Partnership for Transport, Scotland * Sunpentown, a Taiwanese appliance manufacturer Science and technology * Septic pelvic thrombophlebitis, a postpartum co ...

Services

Connections to services on other lines can be made at: * and to the

between and * to the

Whifflet Line The Whifflet Line is one of the lines within the Strathclyde Partnership for Transport, Strathclyde suburban Railway, rail network in Scotland. History The line was built between 1863 and 1865 as the Rutherglen and Coatbridge Railway, part of ...

to * to the

and services on the WCML, ECML, and

North Berwick Line The North Berwick Branch is a short railway branch line built by the North British Railway to connect North Berwick, in East Lothian, Scotland to the East Coast Main Line (at Drem). It was built as a tactical means of excluding competitors ...

2006 to 2011

There was an hourly service, usually operated by a Class 156 and calling at all stations. During the

peak Peak or The Peak may refer to: Basic meanings Geology * Mountain peak ** Pyramidal peak, a mountaintop that has been sculpted by erosion to form a point Mathematics * Peak hour or rush hour, in traffic congestion * Peak (geometry), an (''n''-3)-d ...

this was supplemented by

services extended from to .

2011 to May 2014

There was an hourly service, usually operated by a Class 156; however, Class 158 were occasionally sighted. This called at all stations. During the

this was supplemented by

services extended from to .

May to December 2014

There was an hourly service operated by a Class 318 or a Class 320 as the line had by this time been fully electrified. This called at all stations and was supplemented during the

services extended from to .

December 2014 onwards

The hourly EMU service remains in operation, but now fully interworks with Argyle Line services via the Hamilton Circle west of Motherwell. Southbound trains continue via Hamilton & Newton to via Yoker, whilst those in the opposite direction originate at .GB NRT Dec 2014 - May 2015, Tables 225 & 226 There is no Sunday service on the route except on the portion between Whifflet & Motherwell (which is served by trains on the Whifflet Line).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Motherwell-Cumbernauld Line Transport in Glasgow Railway lines in Scotland Standard gauge railways in Scotland