East Kilbride railway station
Encyclopedia
East Kilbride
East Kilbride is a large suburban town in the South Lanarkshire council area, in the West Central Lowlands of Scotland. Designated as Scotland's first new town in 1947, it forms part of the Greater Glasgow conurbation...
, South Lanarkshire
South Lanarkshire
South Lanarkshire is one of 32 unitary council areas of Scotland, covering the southern part of the former county of Lanarkshire. It borders the south-east of the city of Glasgow and contains many of Glasgow's suburbs, commuter towns and smaller villages....
, Greater Glasgow
Greater Glasgow
Greater Glasgow is an urban settlement in Scotland consisting of all localities which are physically attached to the city of Glasgow, forming with it a single contiguous urban area...
, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
. The station is managed by First ScotRail
First ScotRail
ScotRail Railways Ltd. is the FirstGroup-owned train operating company running domestic passenger trains within Scotland, northern England and the cross-border Caledonian Sleeper service to London using the brand ScotRail which is the property of the Scottish Government...
and it is a terminus on the Glasgow South Western Line
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 station is 11½ rail miles (18 km) south east of .
Early history
Initially opened in 1868, the line was extended in 1888 to Hunthill Junction, near High Blantyre, with an intermediate halt at Calderwood Glen. At Hunthill was a triangular junction where the line from Strathaven joined, then the line proceeded towards Auchinraith Junction where it joined the current Hamiton - Blantyre section of line. This extension of the line was never busy and traffic was suspended during the 1914-18 war, with complete closure coming about as a consequence of the 1939-45 war, after which the line was cut back to Nerston where it serviced some local industries such as Mavor and Coulson Mining Equipment. The section immediately beyond East Kilbride station was also used for many years for shunting etc, and photographs exist of a derailment of a locomotive in this section in 1951. The section between Busby and East Kilbride has always been a single line and was worked by a tokenToken (railway signalling)
In railway signalling, a token is a physical object which a locomotive driver is required to have or see before entering onto a particular section of single track. The token is clearly endorsed with the name of the section it belongs to...
arrangement until the resignalling of the East Kilbride Line on 24 February 1974.
1966
The section from Nerston to the current station was closed on 24 January 1966, shortly before the last steam-hauled passenger services ceased in March of that year. Some of the track beyond East Kilbride was in situ until the early 1970s although not in use; photographs as late as 1972 show an overbridge at West Mains Road and the line continuing underneath.The course of the former railway is built on immediately beyond the station; however, the route can be easily followed towards Nerston and beyond. The line is in fact a footpath between Main Street and East Mains Road and to this day is still easily recognisable as a former railway. The former viaduct at High Blanytre is long gone but the piers are still easily visible. Beyond High Blantyre the route is completely replaced by housing but is still possible to follow with a careful eye on Google Maps.
Despite the postwar development of East Kilbride as a 'New town
New town
A new town is a specific type of a planned community, or planned city, that was carefully planned from its inception and is typically constructed in a previously undeveloped area. This contrasts with settlements that evolve in a more ad hoc fashion. Land use conflicts are uncommon in new...
' development, serious consideration was given to the closure of the line following the 'Beeching Report'. However, a concerted effort by the East Kilbride Railway Development Society in the late 1960s secured the line's survival into the present era.
Present era
Goods traffic, latterly domestic coal for Kanes, based in the old goods yard, survived until 1983-4 although the yard itself was not dismantled until the winter of 1988-9, after which the land was sold and redeveloped as private flats. The Caledonian goods shed survived the loss of general freight in the late 1960s and was occupied by scrap merchants until about 1990, then being demolished during redevelopment of the site.The station is considered to be poorly positioned for modern uses, as it is built near the heart of the old village of East Kilbride, and only partly serves the large new area that has grown since it opened. Since the 1970s, there have been a number of plans to extend the line to East Kilbride Shopping Centre
East Kilbride Shopping Centre
East Kilbride Shopping Centre is Scotland's largest undercover shopping centre at 106,030 sq m and is situated in East Kilbride, South Lanarkshire, Greater Glasgow.The centre is made up of 6 different malls...
and the bus station
East Kilbride bus station
East Kilbride bus station serves the suburban town of East Kilbride, South Lanarkshire, Greater Glasgow, Scotland. The bus station is managed and operated by the Strathclyde Partnership for Transport....
; however, none of these have ever come to fruition, primarily due to the cost of any such project and the difficulty in the steep and densely built over terrain between the current station and the centre. The last such proposal in 1989, which involved tunnelling beneath the area around the Civic Centre to reach the new (1986) bus station, was defeated by protests from local 'NIMBY
NIMBY
NIMBY or Nimby is an acronym for the phrase "not in my back yard". The term is used pejoratively to describe opposition by residents to a proposal for a new development close to them. Opposing residents themselves are sometimes called Nimbies...
' interests.
In spite of this setback, several service improvements have been made since 1990, including the introduction of a half-hourly train services following the installation of a passing loop
Passing loop
A passing loop is a place on a single line railway or tramway, often located at a station, where trains or trams in opposing directions can pass each other. Trains/trams in the same direction can also overtake, providing that the signalling arrangement allows it...
between East Kilbride and , platform lengthening and expansion of 'park and ride
Park and ride
Park and ride facilities are car parks with connections to public transport that allow commuters and other people wishing to travel into city centres to leave their vehicles and transfer to a bus, rail system , or carpool for the rest of their trip...
' facilities. Previously, additional peak hour services were provided by additional trains which shunted from the siding
Rail siding
A siding, in rail terminology, is a low-speed track section distinct from a running line or through route such as a main line or branch line or spur. It may connect to through track or to other sidings at either end...
at East Kilbride, although this fell into disuse after the half hourly service was introduced and was dismantled and lifted in 2005.
The once quite extensive infrastructure that existed at East Kilbride is no more and only a single line to the buffer stop now exists. There is room available for future expansion to two platforms should the need arise, particularly with electrification planned in the medium term by the Scottish Government.