Crossrail Glasgow
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This article or section contains information about a planned or expected public transportation infrastructure. It may contain information of a speculative nature and the content may change dramatically as the construction and/or completion of the infrastructure approaches, and more information becomes available. |
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Crossrail Glasgow (formerly Glasgow Crossrail) is a proposed railway development in Central Scotland.
Since the 1970s, it has been widely recognised that one of the main weaknesses of the railway network in Greater Glasgow is that rail services emanating from the South (which would normally terminate at Central main line station) cannot bypass Glasgow city centre and join the northern railway network which terminates at Glasgow Queen Street station - and vice-versa for trains coming from the North. At present rail users who wish to travel across Glasgow have to disembark at either Central or Queen Street and traverse the city centre by foot, or by road.
The proposed Crossrail initiative involves developing the Bellgrove - Shields Junction section of the City Union Line for passenger use in conjunction with new filler sections of track which will connect the North Clyde, Ayrshire, and Cathcart Circle suburban routes together, therefore allowing through running of services through the centre of Glasgow in a North-South axis. The other purported advantage is that the Glasgow Airport Rail Link would be directly connected to the rest of the Scottish rail network.
The development would also include a number of new (or redeveloped) stations.
- High Street Station on the North Clyde Line would be demolished and relocated.
- A new station will be built at Glasgow Cross, tucked behind the Mercat Building, whilst another new station has been proposed in the Gorbals, opening the area up to the railway network for the first time since the 1960s. This station would also, potentially, provide an interchange with the Argyle Line services that run under the street below.
- West Street subway station would be expanded and remodelled so as to provide another interchange between the railway network and the Subway.
In conjunction with the core proposals, other possible developments of Crossrail may include:
- The construction of a chord over the former Gushetfaulds railfreight terminal to link Crossrail with the West Coast Main Line, therefore providing long distance services from south of the border with an additional route to the north of Glasgow.
- The re-opening of Glasgow Cross station to provide interchange to the Argyle Line.
The scheme has been heavily pushed by Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT) for many years and a £500,000 study was commissioned by the Scottish Executive in 2003 to investigate the feasibility and costs of the link. The outcome of this was published in 2005, with funding and Government approval pending. However, the scheme was once again omitted from a review published by Network Rail and Transport Scotland in the summer of 2006, suggesting that any chances of the scheme becoming a reality still largely uncertain.
The Route Utilisation Strategy for Scotland, published in March 2007, again omitted the Glasgow Crossrail scheme from its recommendations.
