Glasgow and Kilmarnock Joint Railway

The Glasgow, Barrhead and Kilmarnock Joint Railway was a railway jointly owned by the Caledonian Railway and the Glasgow and South Western Railway, completed in 1873, and giving the latter a shorter access to its Carlisle main line. A branch to Beith was also built.

It was formed by extending the earlier independent Glasgow, Barrhead and Neilston Direct Railway, which is also described here; that line was taken over by the joint company.

The main line between Glasgow and Kilmarnock continues in operation at the present day. The station at Neilston was closed, and the locality is served by a different line.

The Glasgow, Barrhead and Neilston Direct Railway (GB&NDR) was authorised on 4 August 1845 to build its line of nine miles (15 km) with a capital of £150,000. It was to run from a terminal on the south side of Glasgow to Crofthead, near Neilston. The location was the centre of several local industries, in the valley of the Cowdon Burn, on the Ayr Road below Neilston.

Two short branches, to Thornliebank, and to Househill were authorised in the following year, with an additional £35,000 capital.

The Glasgow terminal was somewhat remote from the city—Glasgow Bridge carried a toll at this time—but a small railway company could ill afford a central terminus.

Many early railways had been simply a means to move coal and other heavy minerals from a pit to a waterway. By the 1840s it was evident that they had a more strategic role, and in 1846 a Royal Commission deliberated on the desirable location of passenger and goods terminals to serve the city of Glasgow and the quays on the Clyde.

The Caledonian Railway CR had just been authorised (in 1845) and planned to get access to the city over the route of the Garnkirk and Glasgow Railway (by now transformed into the Glasgow, Garnkirk and Coatbridge Railway) which terminated at Townhead, in the north-east margin of the city. Taking a strategic view the CR hoped to get authorisation for a more central terminal, and it collaborate with the GB&NDR to promote a passenger terminal in the city centre. Together they proposed the Glasgow Southern Terminal Railway, which would be located near St Enoch's Square, crossing the Clyde near Glasgow Bridge. It got as far as an authorising Act of Parliament, on 16 July 1846, but the details were left subject to approval by various authorities. In fact the Admiralty demanded a swing bridge for the Clyde crossing, and combined with other opposition, the scheme faced too much obstruction, and was reduced to the construction of a terminal station called South Side, in the angle of Pollokshaws Road and Cathcart Street.

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