Cumbernauld railway station

Cumbernauld National Rail

Cumbernauld railway station (northbound platform)
Location
Place Cumbernauld
Local authority North Lanarkshire
Coordinates 55°56′30″N 3°58′51″W / 55.9418°N 3.9807°WCoordinates: 55°56′30″N 3°58′51″W / 55.9418°N 3.9807°W
Grid reference NS763738
Operations
Station code CUB
Managed by ScotRail
Number of platforms 2
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections
from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2002/03  0.146 million
2004/05 Increase 0.211 million
2005/06 Increase 0.237 million
2006/07 Increase 0.247 million
2007/08 Decrease 0.219 million
2008/09 Increase 0.273 million
2009/10 Decrease 0.222 million
2010/11 Increase 0.227 million
2011/12 Decrease 0.226 million
- Interchange 2,443
2012/13 Decrease 0.221 million
- Interchange Increase 3,992
Passenger Transport Executive
PTE SPT
Zone S6/S8
History
Original company Caledonian Railway
Pre-grouping Caledonian Railway
Post-grouping London, Midland and Scottish Railway
7 August 1848[1] Opened
August 1849[1] Closed
April 1870[1] Reopened
National Rail – UK railway stations
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Cumbernauld from Office of Rail Regulation statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.
UK Railways portal

Cumbernauld railway station serves the town of Cumbernauld, Scotland. The station is managed by ScotRail and is located on the Cumbernauld Line, 14 miles (23 km) north east of Glasgow Queen Street (High Level) station and the Motherwell to Cumbernauld, 11¾ miles (19 km) north of Motherwell. Trains serving the station are operated by ScotRail.

The patronage at Cumbernauld station does not compare well with that of stations in similar towns such as East Kilbride, possibly related to the awkward position on the southeastern periphery of the town, well away from the town centre and the areas of north-western Cumbernauld (including Broadwood and Balloch) being closer to Croy.

History

The station was built by the Caledonian Railway and opened in August 1848 on their line from Gartsherrie (on the former Garnkirk and Glasgow Railway) to Greenhill on the Scottish Central Railway. The line gave the Caledonian access to central & north eastern Scotland from Glasgow and its main line from Carlisle, but the station at Cumbernauld wasn't a commercial success as the village it served wasn't particularly large and so it closed after just one year of operation. It was eventually reopened in 1870 to be served by local passenger services from Glasgow Buchanan Street on the lines toward Falkirk & Stirling.

However it wasn't until the after the decision to designate Cumbernauld as a new town in 1955 that the area's population began to expand significantly and usage of the station increased. This also ensured that the station avoided the Beeching Axe in the early 1960s, even though (as noted) it wasn't particularly well sited for the newly built residential developments.

It did though lose its direct link with the city after the closure to passengers of the Buchanan Street terminus in November 1966.[2] The diversion of all main line expresses and the remaining local routes into Queen Street left the station without any trains serving it and so a replacement service had to be introduced. This consisted of a DMU shuttle along the old main line into Glasgow, which was still operational as far as the works at St Rollox; however just east of there they were re-routed onto the former Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway's Sighthill Branch to Cowlairs, which they used as far as Springburn. Trains terminated there, with passengers having to change onto North Clyde Line electric services over the former City of Glasgow Union Railway branch to Bellgrove and Queen Street Low Level.

Regular local services southwards towards Coatbridge Central and Motherwell had also ceased by this time, although a limited number of longer distance trains continued to call there - notably the London Euston to Inverness Clansman & Royal Highlander expresses from the early 1970s onwards.

Through running to Queen Street High Level was eventually introduced in 1989 and since then several intermediate local stations along the line have reopened with backing from the Strathclyde Passenger Transport Executive. Services both northwards to Falkirk Grahamston (September 1999) and southwards to Motherwell (May 1996) have also been reintroduced, whilst the opening of the Cowlairs Chord in 1993 meant that services could now proceed directly to Queen Street without having to reverse alongside the depot at Eastfield as before. The lines to Glasgow & Coatbridge are currently being electrified (as part of the Edinburgh to Glasgow Improvement Programme), with electric operation beginning in the spring of 2014. This will see service frequencies on the Glasgow line increase to three per hour and through running on electric services to the west end of Glasgow via the North Clyde Line through Queen Street Low Level. The station building is also undergoing major refurbishment as part of this work, with a new modular structure due to open in July.[3]

Services

Off-Peak Monday to Saturday:

On Sundays there is an hourly service to Partick via Springburn and Glasgow Queen Street low level.[4]

Preceding station National Rail Following station
Greenfaulds   ScotRail
Argyle Line
   Terminus
Greenfaulds   ScotRail
North Clyde Line
   Terminus
Greenfaulds   ScotRail
Cumbernauld Line
   Camelon
Historical railways
Greenfaulds
Line and Station open		   CR Main Line
Caledonian Railway
   Greenhill Lower
Line open; Station closed
Bonnybridge
Line partially open; Station closed

Signalling

Cumbernauld signal box, which had 35 levers, was located to the north of the station, on the east side of the line. Latterly it worked by Absolute Block to Greenfoot S.B. and by Track Circuit Block to Greenhill Junction S.B. Its primary function was to operate the crossover and reversing siding used by services that terminated & started back from here (this is still in use today).

Cumbernauld signal box closed on 3 May 1999 when the line was resignalled with colour light signals controlled from Cowlairs Signalling Centre.

Gallery

References

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Butt 1995, p. 74.
  2. ↑ Railscot - Buchanan Street Extension Railscot; Retrieved 2014-01-28
  3. ↑ "On the right tracks; work sees major change at Cumbernauld train station" Campbell, Scott Cumbernauld Media news article 19-05-2014; Retrieved 2014-05-19
  4. ↑ GB National Rail Timetable 14 December 2014 - 16 May 2015, Table 226 (Network Rail)

Sources

External links