City Union Line

City of Glasgow Union Railway
Overview
LocaleScotland
Dates of operation12 December 1870–31 December 1922
SuccessorLMS & LNER
Technical
Track gauge4 ft 8+12 in (1,435 mm)
Route map

Springburn
Sighthill Junction
Barnhill
Blochairn Iron Works
Garngad
Provan Gas Works
Alexandra Parade
Haghill Goods
Haghill Junction
Duke Street
Bellgrove
High Street East Junction
Gallowgate
St Enoch
Saltmarket Junction
Clyde Junction
Gorbals Junction
Gorbals
Southside
Main Street
Cumberland Street
Right arrow Paisley Canal Line (until 1967)
Shields Road
Shields Junction

The City of Glasgow Union Railway – City Union Line, also known as the Tron Line, was a railway company founded in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1864 to build a line connecting the railway systems north and south of the River Clyde, and to build a central passenger terminus and a general goods depot for the city. The through line, running from south-west to north-east across the city, opened in 1870–71, and the passenger terminal was St Enoch railway station, opened in 1876. The railway bridge across the Clyde was the first in the city.

The northern section of the line passed to the North British Railway company (NBR) and became part of its suburban network. St Enoch became the passenger terminus for the Glasgow and South Western Railway, but other companies made little use of it. However, the general goods terminal at College became important, and goods and mineral traffic were the dominant traffic of the through route. The south-western section of the line was quadrupled, and the platform accommodation was doubled, in the last years of the nineteenth century.

In the 1960s, rationalisation of railway facilities was the theme, and all the south-facing passenger services were concentrated at Glasgow Central station. St Enoch closed on 27 June 1966 and most of the site is now occupied by the St Enoch Centre shopping mall. College goods also succumbed and was closed.

The through route remained open for occasional freight services and for empty passenger stock movements across the city. The Bellgrove section that passed to the NBR remains in intensive passenger use, but the elevated section across the city is the iconic part of the line, with large span lattice bridges over Saltmarket, London Road and Gallowgate, which is currently only used for non-passenger movements of trains.

A railway development scheme being considered may lead to renewed use of the line as a cross-city passenger link.[1]

  1. ^ David Ross, The Glasgow and South Western Railway: A History, Stenlake Publishing Limited, Catrine, 2014, ISBN 978 1 84033 648 1