1890–1977 The
Glasgow District Subway Company was incorporated by the '''''' (
53 & 54 Vict. c. clxii), and began construction of the underground in 1891. It opened on 14 December 1896. The subway was powered by a
clutch-and-cable system, with one cable for each direction. The cable was driven from a steam-powered plant between and stations. There was no additional cable to allow trains to reach the depot; instead, they were transferred to and from the running lines by
crane operating over a pit at the Govan workshops. This also meant that the two tracks could be completely separate, with no
points anywhere. The company's headquarters were in the upper rooms at
St Enoch subway station; this distinctive ornate building still stands in St Enoch Square and was subsequently used as a travel information office by SPT and is now a coffee shop. When the Subway first opened, single-carriage four axle (twin truck) trains were operated. Late in the evening on the opening day, after 11 pm, one car laden with 60 passengers was run into by another under the River Clyde. Four people were injured, one being taken to the infirmary. This entailed the closure of the Subway until 19 January 1897. The 20 original wooden bodied carriages were built by the Oldbury Railway Carriage and Wagon Company, of
Oldbury, Worcestershire. Many continued in service until 1977 in an upgraded form. A further 10 were delivered by the same manufacturer in 1897. From 1898, second four axle (trailer) carriages without a cable gripper mechanism were added, though they were considerably shorter than the front (gripper) carriage. These additional carriages, eventually numbering 30, were built by
Hurst Nelson & Company,
Motherwell, Lanarkshire. These carriages were soon expanded to match the length of the front carriages, although carriage 41T has been restored to its original length and cut longitudinally and number 39T is preserved in the
Riverside Museum. Most of the gripper carriages were subsequently converted to electric traction in 1935. All carriages were originally built with lattice gates (instead of doors) at the ends; many were converted to air-operated sliding doors in the 1960s, but a few retained the gates until 1977. All 15 stations were built with
island platforms. The trains were thus built with doors on one side only. Power for the electric lighting in the trains was supplied by two parallel wall-mounted
rails (known as "T-irons") at window level on the non-platform side of the trains; trains were originally equipped with wheels to pick up the electricity but changed to skids at electrification. Opening times of the Glasgow Subway have varied through the years, now open 06:30 to 23:40 Monday to Saturday and 10:00 to 18:12 on Sunday following a trial period between April 2011 and 2012 when the subway was open from 09:00–18:30. Glasgow Corporation took over the company in 1923 at a cost of £385,000 (). In 1935, the existing trains were converted to electric power delivered by a
third rail at 600
volts, direct current. (). The last cable drawn car service was on 30 November 1935, and was driven by Robert Boyd. The trains lost their original plum and cream-coloured liveries, being painted red and white instead. From the 1950s the trains became all red—in a shade similar to that of
London buses. During the early 1970s, trailer carriage number 41 was repainted in the original 1896 livery. According to Keith Anderson
World War II brought an "unprecedented" level of use by passengers. Anderson attributes this, and an increase in patronage in the years leading up to the conflict, to the expansion of the local shipyard workforce due to the need for rearmament. Unlike its larger counterpart in
London the system's stations did not make good air-raid shelters as they were much less deep. On 18 September 1940, during World War II, a German bomb, which dropped during a night raid on Glasgow and may have been intended for nearby naval facilities, landed on a bowling green to the south of
Merkland Street station. The resulting explosion caused damage to both tunnels, leading to closure of part of the system until repairs were completed in January 1941. The system suffered no other damage during the conflict. It did lose staff who were called up to participate in the war effort. By the 1970s, the stations were very dilapidated. Surface access to most stations had been largely built into existing buildings and their entrances often formed part of shop frontages ( being the only surviving example of this in the post-modernised era), and with many of these structures being destroyed during the
slum clearances of the 1960s, often only the station access was left standing. Stations were marked with circular signs often attached to lampposts. This sign had a white background in the top three-quarters (containing a large red letter "U") and black in the bottom quarter (containing the word "Underground" and an arrow to the station entrance). No station had an
escalator; had a
lift. Each station had a ticket office (often very small, little more than a booth with a window). The ticketing system was identical to that of most cinemas of the era, with tickets emerging from slots in the counters of the station ticket offices (the words "Control Systems Ltd" or "Automaticket Ltd" were printed on all tickets). Tickets were invariably collected on leaving the train. From the time of being taken over by the Corporation until 1977, the staff were issued with tramway uniforms; these were dark green and had a black braid on the cuffs which had been introduced at the time of the funeral of
Queen Victoria in 1901. The
Glasgow Museum of Transport had an area dedicated to the subway, with models showing the operation of the clutch-and-cable system, as well as a full-scale replica of part of a subway station, complete with different rolling stock of the pre-modernisation era.
Modernisation (1977–1980) By the 1970s, use of the Subway had declined significantly. This was caused partly by the closure of some of the
dockyards and by widescale demolition of
tenements south of the
River Clyde. The original carriages, mostly dating back to 1896, were still in use, though adapted for electric traction in 1935. Breakdowns were becoming increasingly frequent; because trains could only be removed from the tracks to the depot by crane, a single inoperable train could cause major delays. The future of the Subway became a major issue for the
Greater Glasgow Passenger Transport Executive (GGPTE), which took over responsibility for the line from Glasgow Corporation in the early 1970s. In January 1974 GGPTE announced a modernisation programme would be undertaken. The original plan would have seen trains continue to run on the system, with one of the two circles continuing to run while the other was upgraded. This idea was abandoned as expert advice suggested a safety risk. On 24 March 1977, cracks were noticed in the roof of
Govan Cross station, leading to suspension of services until 2 May. The service resumed with only four trains per circle. On 21 May 1977, the system was shut down eight days prematurely for a major refurbishment and modernisation; the date was brought forward because of the appearance of more cracks in the Govan Cross roof. Badly deteriorated tunnels were repaired; stations were rebuilt and enlarged, with additional platforms at Buchanan Street, Partick, Govan, Ibrox, Hillhead and St Enoch. The surface building of
St George's Cross had already been rebuilt in 1971 as part of the construction of the
Glasgow Inner Ring Road, and therefore was merely re-clad in the new corporate style. The entrance to Kelvinbridge was reversed, with a new entrance and car park built at South Woodside Road, an escalator to Great Western Road and stairs down to the west end of the platform; the former entrance and stairway at the east end became an emergency exit, and the lift was withdrawn from service.
Merkland Street station was closed (thus becoming a
ghost station); a new station to the north was built at
Partick to provide an interchange with the
North Clyde Line of the suburban rail system. The site of Merkland Street can be noticed by the characteristic hump and the larger-diameter tunnel with both tracks. Many fittings from Merkland Street were used to build a replica pre-modernisation station at the
Glasgow Museum of Transport which contained three preserved cars. A further interchange via
moving walkway was installed between Buchanan Street station and
Queen Street mainline station as part of the modernisation. In August 1977, all redundant fittings and equipment from the old system were sold at a public sale at Broomloan Works. During the 1977–1980 modernisation, two Clayton battery locomotives were used by the contractors
Taylor Woodrow to haul construction trains. Heavier track was installed although still at the unique gauge, the original Broomloan Depot was modernised and equipped with connecting tracks with points to replace the crane transfer, and a new electrical supply from
Westinghouse Electric Corporation was installed. A new ticketing system, provided by Crouzet, with passenger-operated ticket vending machines and automatic
turnstile barriers, replaced the old, perforated cinema-style tickets and
conductors. The post-1980 yellow tickets have since been replaced by a newer system, issuing
magnetic stripe card tickets. The modernised system uses
automatic train operation with the driver only responsible for closing the doors and pressing a "start" button in normal operation. While the system was closed a replacement bus service was introduced by GGPTE in a bid to retain customers. Service 66 covered the inner circle route, while service 99 covered the route taken by the outer circle. The exterior design of the trains was carried out in partnership with
Glasgow School of Art, which, according to SPT publicity films of the day, was largely responsible for the trains' "cute" appearance. Eight additional centre-trailer carriages were built in 1992 (the body shells by Hunslet Gyro Mining Transport in
Leeds for completion by
Hunslet-Barclay in
Kilmarnock), making all trains three carriages long. Smoking has never been permitted on the modernised system. A new corporate identity was introduced (following contemporary fashions of the 1970s), with trains painted bright orange, stations largely rebuilt with dark brown bricks, orange-yellow wall tiles and other surfaces in off-white, plus brown uniforms for the staff. Large, illuminated orange "U" signs were placed at station entrances (since removed, with the re-adoption of the name "Subway"). Since the 1990s, ongoing renovation work has resulted in most stations adopting individual colour schemes. The trains' initial orange livery of 1980 (with a white stripe) was soon replaced by a darker, more durable shade of orange, later being replaced by SPT's carmine-red and cream livery. The system was resignalled using Vital Processor Interlocking in 1996 and subsequently an upgraded Supervisory & Control System was installed.
Further modernisation (2000s) A £40,000 study examining the feasibility of an expansion into the city's south side was conducted in 2005, and in 2007 Labour further committed to extend the line to the East End, but to no avail. New electronic destination signs were installed in the stations in 2008. The
Partick station modernisation project was completed in 2009, and resulted in a complete redevelopment at the station, which hosts a railway station, a subway station and a bus terminal on the outside. In April 2010, Strathclyde Partnership for Transport approved outline plans for a £290 million upgrade of the Subway—the first since the comprehensive modernisation of the late 1970s. Plans included additional safety measures, improved accessibility and smart technology such as electronic tickets. The proposals were approved by the
Scottish Government in March 2011, and changes to be brought in included: • integrated
smartcard ticketing • new driverless trains • improved signalling with automation • refurbishing all subway stations, including making stations more accessible, as well as safer with
platform screen doors. The first station to be modernised was . This began in 2011 and finished in 2012. The work included the retiling of all the walls and floors, the replacement of escalators, a new ticket office, better way finding and also a piece of public art. Further plans were announced to modernise Ibrox and Kelvinhall stations before the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. Furthermore, all other stations were planned to receive updated branding prior to modernisation work being carried out on them, so as to achieve unity in design. In March 2016, Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT) awarded contracts to
Stadler and
Ansaldo STS for the supply of 17 new driverless trains for the Subway. The first was delivered in May 2019. Testing on the Subway started on 5 December 2021. The first new trains were previously expected to operate in 2022. The first passenger service with the new trains operated on 11 December 2023, with the third generation trains fully replacing the second generation after their withdrawal on 28 June 2024. ==Future development and Clyde Metro==