Scottish Blog

The Glasgow Subway system is the fourth oldest subway system in the world.

The Glasgow Subway is one of the oldest subway systems in the world, and as such stands somewhat as a Scottish symbol of ingenuity and engineering. Opened on the 14th of December 1896 by the Glasgow District Subway Company, is only preceded by the subway systems of London, Istanbul and Budapest.

The Glasgow Subway was originally designed (and still is) as a 10.4 kilometer circular path, with 15 stops. The tracks were originally “clutch-and-cable” based, with a cable dedicated to pulling trains in either direction. The cables were towed by a steam powered engine, which was located between the West and Shields Road stations.
The Glasgow Subway system continued to be cable hauled until 1935, when one of the tracks was converted to an electric one, where the train was supplied with electricity through the third rail on the track. The carriages in the Glasgow Subway system were fitted with electric lights well before then, these lights were powered by a “skid pad” running alongside the train. This system was kept until 1977.

The Glasgow Subway was upgraded in 1977 due to a number of factors. Amongst these, the most influential were the relatively small utilization of the subway, the dilapidated condition of the carriages and cracks in some architecture of stations. The station and carriages were renovated and repaired. Along with this, the Glasgow Subway also received new, heavier subway rails, which were placed in the same gauge as the London Underground.

To this day, the route of the Glasgow Subway is exactly the same as it was originally, which is unique for a subway system of that age. There have been projects proposed to the Scottish parliament which call for expansion of the tracks, but so far none have been fully approved because of the large costs that they would entail, although a number of station renovation projects are currently underway or will be soon.