Glasgow Central Railway

The Glasgow Central Railway was a railway line built in Glasgow, Scotland by the Caledonian Railway, running in tunnel east to west through the city centre. It was opened in stages from 1894 and opened up new journey opportunities for passengers and enabled the Caledonian Railway to access docks and industrial locations on the north bank of the River Clyde. An intensive and popular train service was operated, but the long tunnel sections with frequent steam trains were smoky and heartily disliked.

The network paralleled the North British Railway routes in the area, and after nationalisation of the railways the line declined and was closed in stages from 1959 to 1964.

In 1979 the central part of the route was reopened as an electrically operated passenger railway, the Argyle Line; this was greatly popular and enhanced connecting routes to west and east made this a valuable link through the city once more. The Argyle Line section is in heavy use today, but the other parts remain closed.

In 1845 the Caledonian Railway was authorised to build its line from Glasgow and Edinburgh to Carlisle. This was of course a main line railway, with no thought of local travel within the cities. By acquiring an interest in other lines, the Caledonian soon had three terminal stations in Glasgow: Buchanan Street, South Side, and Bridge Street. None of these was very convenient to the city centre for passengers, and goods to and from shipping on the River Clyde was carted through the streets.

The Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway (E&GR) terminated at Queen Street, a cramped terminal convenient for the city but with no access to the quays.

The Caledonian set about getting access to the Clyde at Broomielaw by sponsoring the nominally independent General Terminus and Glasgow Harbour Railway which constructed berthing a short distance downstream from Glasgow Bridge on the south side, and built a railway to it from Gushetfaulds (Larkfield Junction). The construction was finished by December 1848 but it connected to the Clydesdale Junction Railway which was only completed the following year. The General Terminus represented considerable progress in bulk handling of minerals, but it was still limited in capacity, as the vessels had to lie alongside the bank, and the improvements to the navigation of the Clyde had not yet been completed. Nonetheless the General Terminus had an effective monopoly of rail-borne export of minerals for many years.

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