Cathcart District Railway

The Cathcart District Railway was proposed to serve the arising demand for suburban residential travel on the south side of Glasgow, Scotland. It was planned as a loop running to and from Glasgow Central station, but at first only the eastern arm, to Cathcart via Queens Park, was built, opening in 1886. The western arm was opened in 1894 and trains operated round the loop. A frequent passenger train service was operated, and there was also a limited goods and mineral operation.

The passenger trains were popular but the company was never very profitable, and tramcar competition hit it hard. A decline set in through the twentieth century until electrification in 1962, which revived the line, which served onward routes to Newton and Neilston as well.

The line continues in use today.

The trunk railways of central Scotland developed from 1850 onwards; the Caledonian Railway and the Glasgow and South Western Railway (G&SWR) were trunk railways formed with the intention of linking to the English railway network. Other railways south of the River Clyde led to specific locations outside Glasgow. As the city grew, the notion of daily residential passenger travel arose, at first by the middle classes but increasingly by all levels of the community. Suburban railway facilities were limited, and they were inhibited by the inconvenient location of the Glasgow passenger terminals. Bridge Street station was on the south side of the river close to Glasgow Bridge. It served the Paisley lines. South Side station was located further from the city, south of Cumberland Street; it served the Barrhead, Hamilton and Motherwell lines. Buchanan Street station, located on the north-east side of the city at Cowcaddens Street led by a circuitous railway route to the Motherwell and Carlisle line, as well as the Stirling direction.

This unsatisfactory situation was resolved by the construction of two central passenger terminal stations: St Enoch station, opened by the G&SWR in 1876, connecting to the G&SWR line to Ayr via the Paisley joint line, and to Kilmarnock over the Glasgow, Barrhead and Kilmarnock Joint Railway, opened in 1873. This "magnificent terminal" was centrally situated in the city, and it gave access to all the G&SWR south side lines. In 1879 the Caledonian opened its Glasgow Central station, also well situated, and accessible for all the Caledonian's south side routes.

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