Old tunnels, missing tracks, disused stations etc

[The Egg Man]

Apologies if this is in the wrong place. I thought about 'railway heads' but it's probably more than just that.

Does anyone know if there's been a proper comprehensive joined-up thinking, engineer-led survey of what remains of former train lines, stations etc in, around and under Glasgow?

Something that would be able to say yea, nay or maybe - to a long term plan to reopen at least parts of it and get some cars and buses off the city streets?

Thanks for any thoughts.

[moonbeam]

I did see some plans years ago regarding a light rail/ tram system from Maryhill to the SECC area using the old tunnels. Also an extension under London Road past Celtic Stadium. Wishfully thinking. It was in the days when Charlie Gordon was the council whiz kid and an ex-railway man. It is probably in one of these massive books called The City Plan. Available at your local library.

[The Egg Man]

If it dates from Charlie Gordon's era, it'll be lucky to have survived the Flood.

[Gerry B]

Have We Got Money To Clean All This Up?

Cooking Table Bridgeton

Clear Out Tunnel And Reinforce It.
I Know Near Parkheid Stadium It Has Been Reinforced For The Games

[bAzTNM]

Yeah, they've been working in that tunnel behind that pub at Celtic Park a lot the last few months.

[johnkerry]

Celtic Park in the lot behind the bar in the last few months, the working tunnel.

[RapidAssistant]

Crossrail is the obvious one - although most of that scheme is about putting passenger trains back over the City Union Line which is still an operational freight route - not disused; although as part of that scheme they have deliberately protected the trackbed over the old Freightliner container terminal in the Gorbals, so they could reconnect the WCML to the City Union. When the M74 Extension was being built they put in overbridges so the line can run under the new motorway in the event of it ever happening.

I also heard talk about the disused connection between Bridgeton and High Street - the tunnel that runs under the Gallowgate - was still maintained in case the line ever went back in again. Can anyone substantiate this?

[DavidMcD316]

Obviously cant change the past, but cant help think how much better served Glasgow would have been if they kept the trams and the city union line. Even a smaller scale St Enoch station.
Always found it strange you cannot get from Queen St to Central.

[The Egg Man]

It's because of questions like 'how to get from Central to Queen St without getting wet?' that I posted initially. (I know about the wee bus).

I suspect big chunks of the infrastructure are still there. Every so often I spot something that looks as if it was once a railway line and, unless I misunderstand things, that's the expensive bit. Reopening old lines, where possible, has got to be a good idea.

Only today, Aberdeen is looking into a tram network (no doubt encouraged by the success of Edinburgh's scheme).

[RapidAssistant]

It's because of questions like 'how to get from Central to Queen St without getting wet?' that I posted initially. (I know about the wee bus).

I suspect big chunks of the infrastructure are still there. Every so often I spot something that looks as if it was once a railway line and, unless I misunderstand things, that's the expensive bit. Reopening old lines, where possible, has got to be a good idea.

Only today, Aberdeen is looking into a tram network (no doubt encouraged by the success of Edinburgh's scheme).

The big problem really is Network Rail's costs - nobody for example seems to explain why back in the late 1980s, British Rail was able to electrify the East Coast route for little more than a £1bn in today's money; yet Railtrack and Network Rail managed to blow £8bn on the West Coast route a mere 15 years later. Reopening lines is a great idea indeed - but doing it in a cost efficient manner seems to be beyond the abilities of todays' railway managers. Much of this may be down to the risk-averse nature in this Health & Safety obsessed nanny state we now live in, as well as the fragmentation the rail industry caused by privatisation. There are other factors of course.

But this is a wider debate, beyond the scope of a Hidden Glasgow discussion - I could rant and rave about the scandal of rail privatisation all day....follow the blog Christian Wolmar's website (http://www.christianwolmar.co.uk) and you can read my numerous scribblings on the subject..... (or @RapidAssistant on Twitter for the occasional rant!)

[Dexter St. Clair]

Much of this may be down to the risk-averse nature in this Health & Safety obsessed nanny state we now live in, as well as the fragmentation the rail industry caused by privatisation. There are other factors of course.

You and your political correctness. It's called corporate manslaughter. Did you work on this bit?

[RapidAssistant]

Much of this may be down to the risk-averse nature in this Health & Safety obsessed nanny state we now live in, as well as the fragmentation the rail industry caused by privatisation. There are other factors of course.

You and your political correctness. It's called corporate manslaughter. Did you work on this bit?

You can't win. When I do speak my mind I offend someone. When I don't I'm being overly politically correct. So here's some other adjectives I'd use for rail privatisation:

Legalized theft
Dogged clinging to right-wing free market ideology even when it is patently flawed when applied to the railways.
Phoney capitalism
Government vandalism of a well functioning state industry
Corporate manslaughter (definately in the case of not just Hatfield, but also Southall, Potters Bar and Ladbroke Grove)
Train operating companies are hypocritical, opportunist, free market capitalists of the worst kind.

[banjo]

cannot argue with that post rapidassistant

[moonbeam]

Are any political party going to re nationalize the railways? Why sell off to the private sector the east coast line. A couple of years down the line and we will be subsidising it.

[Alycidon]

Obviously cant change the past, but cant help think how much better served Glasgow would have been if they kept the trams and the city union line. Even a smaller scale St Enoch station.
Always found it strange you cannot get from Queen St to Central.

Check out your railway history of Glasgow, the passenger train service over the City Union Line was withdrawn because of competition from........the electric trams!!

The reason you cannot get from Queen Street to Central was a lack of joined up thinking by the competing companies allied to a lack of interest by the City fathers. Glasgow is not alone in not having a north south rail link, London's was only developed relatively recently and Manchesters is still not great. Bradford is another example of a city where a through route was planned but never built.