Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway

The Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway was authorised by Act of Parliament on 4 July 1838. It was opened to passenger traffic on 21 February 1842, between its Glasgow Queen Street railway station (sometimes referred to at first as Dundas Street) and Haymarket railway station in Edinburgh. Construction cost £1,200,000 for 46 miles (74 km). The intermediate stations were at Corstorphine (later Saughton), Gogar, Ratho, Winchburgh, Linlithgow, Polmont, Falkirk, Castlecary, Croy, Kirkintilloch (later Lenzie) and Bishopbriggs. There was a ticket platform at Cowlairs. The line was extended eastwards from Haymarket to North Bridge in 1846, and a joint station for connection with the North British Railway was opened on what is now Edinburgh Waverley railway station in 1847.

The quantity of passenger business on the line considerably exceeded estimates, reaching almost double the daily volume, and by 1850 company needed 58 locomotives and 216 coaches to handle the traffic. Goods traffic started in March 1842 and slowly increased, overtaking passenger traffic in revenue terms by 1855.

The line still runs today as the main line between Edinburgh and Glasgow. It is currently being electrified and improved under the auspices of the Edinburgh-Glasgow Improvement Programme

The earliest railways in Scotland were waggonways, intended for horse drawn operation, in most cases from a colliery or other mineral source, to a waterway for onward transport.

Notable early lines were the Kilmarnock and Troon Railway of 1812 and the Monkland and Kirkintilloch Railway of 1826, the first of the "coal railways" of the Monklands area. The Garnkirk and Glasgow Railway (G&GR) was authorised in the same year, and it opened in 1831.

...
Wikipedia