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.David Ross, The Glasgow and South Western Railway: A History, Stenlake Publishing Limited, Catrine, 2014,
History Plans The Glasgow, Paisley, Kilmarnock and Ayr Railway (GPK&AR) and its rival, the Glasgow, Paisley and Greenock Railway, received their authorising acts of Parliament on 15 July 1837. Although they hoped for separate lines, they were obliged to build their line as far as Paisley jointly; their lines diverged west of that point. Their Glasgow terminus was Bridge Street, on the south bank of the River Clyde. At first this was adequate but as traffic developed the arrangement became unsatisfactory. The GPK&AR absorbed another railway and was renamed the Glasgow and South Western Railway (G&SWR), and was running trains to a range of destinations in its area of influence.
Suggestions had been made for some years to connect the lines south and north of the Clyde: in 1846 a parliamentary select committee produced a report of 1,470 pages on the subject, but in the face of opposition from vested interests including those who received the tolls on the existing road bridges, nothing was done.John Thomas, revised Alan J S Paterson, A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain: 6—Scotland, the Lowlands and the Borders, David and Charles, Newton Abbot, 1984,
Other unsuccessful proposals followed, but in 1863 a prospectus for a City of Glasgow Union Railway was published: it would "unite the whole of the Railways now terminating North and South of the River Clyde", and provide a "general Central Station" (at St Enoch Square) for passengers and a separate "General Goods Station" on lands to be vacated by the University of Glasgow: "College Goods station". The promoters were contractors, hoping to generate construction work for themselves, and they wished to involve all the railways in the scheme, taking a substantial block of shares themselves.In The Glasgow and South Western Railway Ross indicates that the contractors were the prime movers in the scheme, but Paterson, pages 212-213, suggests that it was a G&SWR and E&GR initiative. In The Caledonian, Ross says on page 84 that "The initiative came from the Glasgow and South Western side," but also on the same page that it was "a contractor's ramp". The G&SWR and the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway (E&GR) were favourable towards such a scheme as the trade in goods between their areas of influence was considerable, and the available through route was circuitous. The other major player was the Caledonian Railway (CR) which had terminals north and south of the Clyde; it was developing its Buchanan Street station and it had adequate goods facilities, but it was not opposed to the idea of a link and a common passenger terminal.David Ross, The Caledonian: Scotland's Imperial Railway—A History, Stenlake Publishing, 2013,
The line would be over long, from West Street to Sighthill, where the E&GR had a goods yard; it would cost £650,000 to build.The western extremity was later altered to Shields Junction, a short distance west of West Street. The alignment east of Glasgow High Street was altered to join the NBR Coatbridge - College line at College West Junction and leave it again at Bellgrove East Junction. The original "St Enoch's Square Central Station" was designed by John Fowler and J. F. Blair. It was a through station: a general planTaken from a plan in Engineering, 18 January 1867, reproduced in Johnstone and Hume, page 65. The original periodical "Engineering" is difficult to trace. shows an eight platform station on the site actually used; there are three short bay platforms, a "Northern Division" of two platform faces, and a southern division with four tracks extending westwards across Dixon Street. There is no indication where the tracks are destined; in earlier years there had been considerable interest in providing rail access to the Broomielaw quays on the north bank of the Clyde, and this may be the purpose.Colin Johnstone and John R Hume, Glasgow Stations, David and Charles (Publishers) Limited, Newton Abbot, 1979, , page 65Chris Hogg and Lynn Patrick, The Glasgow, Cowal and Bute Route Through Time, Amberley Publishing, Stroud, 2014, In 1869-1870 when the Queen's Dock was being planned at Stobcross, the G&SWR applied for running powers there, intending to build a line west from Dunlop Street, bridging St Enoch Square and running parallel and close to the north bank of the Clyde. The scheme would have been enormously disruptive and expensive, and the application was refused.Paterson, page 216
The capital requirement soon escalated to £900,000, and the G&SWR and the E&GR were supportive, but the CR was not greatly interested (and may have taken offence at the manner of the approach) and opposed the scheme. Nonetheless, the (27 & 28 Vict. c. cclxxxvi) received royal assent on 29 July 1864. In early 1865 it was agreed that the G&SWR and the E&GR would between them take the whole of the stock of the new company, releasing the prospective contractors from that obligation. On 1 August 1865 the E&GR was taken over by the larger, but more remote, North British Railway (NBR).
The scheme for the general passenger station was now modified, as it emerged that the NBR did not contemplate making much use of it, although hopes lingered that the Caledonian would have a change of heart and join in the project. For the time being a smaller station at Dunlop Street was considered to suffice. The NBR was experiencing financial difficulties. Access for mineral traffic to the General Terminus goods station on the south bank of the Clyde was a significant consideration in supporting the CGUR, but the huge expenditure on a grand terminal passenger station was too much for the NBR board.David Ross, The North British Railway—A History, Stenlake Publishing, Catrine, 2014,
Opening
Work progressed and in September 1870 the City of Glasgow Union line opened to goods traffic only. It opened for full passenger use between Shields Road and Dunlop Street on 12 December 1870; St Enoch station was not ready and the Dunlop Street station was a temporary terminus.The Dunlop Street station was on the curve towards the (later) St Enoch station, and off the route of the through line towards Sighthill. The street was later submerged under railway construction. Ross states (page 84) that "Despite its temporary character, the station [was] large and commodious, with six platforms [and] a twin-span iron roof 504 feet long and 80 feet high." The station was elevated on a viaduct, at a location intended at the time to be simply a double track section leading to St Enoch station. If this report is correct, it must have involved considerable "temporary" land acquisition and construction to support a six-platform terminal station, handling only a shuttle passenger service to Shields Road. The dimensions of the roof are identical to those he quotes on page 99 for the permanent St Enoch station. The Dunlop Street station had cost £200,000.
At Shields Road there was a station on the Union line and also on the Glasgow and Paisley Joint line, where passengers could change for Paisley, Ayr and Greenock.
The construction had cost about £1 million, due chiefly to escalating land acquisition costs. The new line incorporated the first railway bridge over the Clyde in the city; but the St Enoch Square terminus had not been started yet.
On 1 June 1871 the service was extended to Bellgrove, with an intermediate station at Gallowgate. Trains towards Bellgrove worked into Dunlop Street terminus, and then were propelled back to Clyde Junction to resume their onward journey. At this time the NBR was extending westwards from Coatbridge via Shettleston and opened the line to College passenger station on 1 February 1871. This brought extra flows of Monklands coal to the CGUR, destined for the Clyde at General Terminus. By October 1872 the College Goods station was in operation, though with costs escalating, it was long before it was completed.John Thomas, The North British Railway—volume 1, David & Charles, Newton Abbot, 1969, , page 164
The line through to Sighthill Junction was opened to goods traffic on 18 August 1875, although it was not until 1 January 1881 that passenger services reached Alexandra Parade, and 1 January 1887 to Springburn, beyond Sighthill Junction.
Over 1,300 houses had been demolished in the construction,Carol Foreman, Lost Glasgow: Glasgow's Lost Architectural Heritage, Birlinn, Edinburgh, 2002, and by 1874 £2,200,000 had been expended.Campbell Highet, The Glasgow & South-Western Railway, Oakwood Press, Lingfield, 1965
St Enoch station opened at last
Negotiations between the G&SWR and the English Midland Railway for mutual co-operation or merger had blown hot and cold. Finally on 1 May 1876 the first through trains ran from St Enoch to St Pancras station, London, over the two lines. Four trains ran daily, with Pullman drawing room cars, and sleeping cars on a night service. In fact the station was far from complete: it was not until the end of 1877 that the station was ready, with the southwards connection opening on 1 November.
There were six platforms beneath the arch iron and glass roof, which was in length, high and with a clear span of . The cost had risen to £1,275,000. There were 43 trains each way, six days a week. Through coaches from Edinburgh to Ayr were operated in association with the North British Railway; they were detached from trains to Queen Street at Bellgrove, and worked forward to Clyde Junction, where they were attached to trains starting from St Enoch.
The station was the first public area in Scotland to be lit by electricity, although 464 gas jet lamps were provided as an emergency standby. Nonetheless, Johnston calls it "by far the gloomiest of the Glasgow quartet [of main line terminals]".
As late as July 1876 the Caledonian Railway renewed an approach concerning use of St Enoch by their trains; they were rebuffed by the G&SWR, who said that a minimum payment of £500,000 would be necessary to permit the access.