Glasgow and Paisley Joint Railway
| Locale | Scotland |
|---|---|
| Dates of operation | September 1840–31 December 1922 |
| Successor | London, Midland and Scottish Railway |
| Track gauge | 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) |
The Glasgow and Paisley Joint Railway was the section of railway line between Glasgow Bridge Street railway station and Paisley, in the west of Scotland. It was constructed and operated jointly by two competing railway companies as the stem of their lines to Greenock and Ayr respectively, and it opened in 1840. The Joint Committee, which controlled the line, built a branch to Govan and later to Cessnock Dock, and then Prince's Dock.
With the passing of the Railways Act 1921 (Grouping Act) the line, together with the Caledonian Railway and the Glasgow and South Western Railway, became part of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS).
The line is still in heavy use today as the eastern end of the Inverclyde Line and the Ayrshire Coast Line.
In the 1830s promoters in the west of Scotland considered the potential for railway construction, and in the 1837 Parliamentary session, supporters of two schemes presented bills. One scheme was to build from Glasgow to Greenock, and the other from Glasgow to Ayr with a branch to Kilmarnock. Both wished to start from a Glasgow terminus at Bridge Street, and their proposed course as far as Paisley was almost identical. At the time Parliament was hostile to permitting closely parallel construction, and it became clear that the only way forward was to combine to build and use a shared line as far as Paisley. The Acts for the two schemes received the Royal Assent 15 July 1837, and the new companies were called the Glasgow, Paisley and Greenock Railway (GP&GR) and the Glasgow, Paisley, Kilmarnock and Ayr Railway (GPK&AR).
The GPK&AR opened a section at its southern end on 19 July 1839 between Irvine and Ayr (Newton-on-Ayr), and it started operation on the Joint Line on 14 July 1840 from a temporary station at Glasgow (Bridge Street) to Paisley. The GP&GR opened in March 1841, having been delayed due to the difficulties in the construction of the tunnel at Bishopton.
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