1.
ScotRail (brand)
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ScotRail has been the brand name used for all Scottish regional and commuter rail services, including some cross-border services, since September 1983. Since 2008, it is the permanent name of the Scottish franchised rail services, the ScotRail brand was created by British Railways Scottish Region manager Chris Green in the mid 1980s to provide a distinctive brand for the Regional Railways network in Scotland. The brand has developed and is still in use today, the red stripe was replaced with a saltire blue stripe, and the InterCity name was replaced with the ScotRail name. Most Diesel Locomotives carried standard InterCity Executive livery, but with ScotRail branding, Diesel and Electric multiple units carried normal versions of the Regional Railways livery. In the SPT area, rolling stock was painted in Strathclyde Orange, the brand was adopted by National Express Group when it took over the franchise from British Railways during privatisation in 1997. The first unique ScotRail livery was introduced shortly after privatisation under National Express, initially, vehicles received the new ScotRail logo applied with vinyl stickers, a stylised outline of Scotland composed of three flashes in the corporate colours of green, red and purple. There were no units left with Regional Railways livery in Scotland at the end of the National Express franchise period, the latter were replaced by ex-Stansted Skytrain Class 322 units which were never repainted under the National Express franchise, receiving only ScotRail logo transfers. When FirstGroup became the franchisee on 17 October 2004, in line with other rail franchises it held, when First originally acquired the franchise, a new regional livery of pink, grey and purple and a new logo of a pink circle and an italicised f character was introduced. Legislation requiring train doors to be painted in a colour to the body for visually impaired passengers resulted in white doors with a pink stripe. Like National Express, First applied their logo on units by transfer until repainting, a large number of units were re-branded into this livery, including the Class 322 units re-acquired for North Berwick service and the Class 90 locomotives used on Caledonian Sleeper services. In September 2008, the Scottish Government agency, Transport Scotland, Transport Scotland came up with a new livery which will be applied to all of Scotlands trains, when they went into maintenance. The new livery is blue background, with grey doors. A new logo is applied, ScotRail, with the tag line Scotlands Railway. Stations and staff uniforms are also getting a new look - dark blue and this livery is not going to be replaced when the franchise ends, the only branding showing the operator will be a small ScotRail is operated by sign on the station building and on the train doors. The franchise transferred to Abellio ScotRail on 1 April 2015, the Caledonian Sleeper rolling stock was not treated with the Transport Scotland livery as it was transferred to a separate franchise operated by Serco on 1 April 2015
2.
Scottish Gaelic
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Scottish Gaelic or Scots Gaelic, sometimes also referred to as Gaelic, is a Celtic language native to Scotland. A member of the Goidelic branch of the Celtic languages, Scottish Gaelic, like Modern Irish and Manx, developed out of Middle Irish. The 2011 census of Scotland showed that a total of 57,375 people in Scotland could speak Gaelic at that time, the census results indicate a decline of 1,275 Gaelic speakers from 2001. A total of 87,056 people in 2011 reported having some facility with Gaelic compared to 93,282 people in 2001, only about half of speakers were fully literate in the language. Nevertheless, revival efforts exist and the number of speakers of the language under age 20 has increased, Scottish Gaelic is neither an official language of the European Union nor the United Kingdom. Outside Scotland, a group of dialects collectively known as Canadian Gaelic are spoken in parts of Atlantic Canada, mainly Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. In the 2011 census, there were 7,195 total speakers of Gaelic languages in Canada, with 1,365 in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island where the responses mainly refer to Scottish Gaelic. About 2,320 Canadians in 2011 also claimed Gaelic languages as their mother tongue, with over 300 in Nova Scotia, aside from Scottish Gaelic, the language may also be referred to simply as Gaelic. In Scotland, the word Gaelic in reference to Scottish Gaelic specifically is pronounced, outside Ireland and Great Britain, Gaelic may refer to the Irish language. Scottish Gaelic should not be confused with Scots, the Middle English-derived language varieties which had come to be spoken in most of the Lowlands of Scotland by the modern era. Prior to the 15th century, these dialects were known as Inglis by its own speakers, from the late 15th century, however, it became increasingly common for such speakers to refer to Scottish Gaelic as Erse and the Lowland vernacular as Scottis. Today, Scottish Gaelic is recognised as a language from Irish. Gaelic in Scotland was mostly confined to Dál Riata until the 8th century, when it began expanding into Pictish areas north of the Firth of Forth, by 900, Pictish appears to have become extinct, completely replaced by Gaelic. An exception might be made for the Northern Isles, however, however, though the Pictish language did not disappear suddenly, a process of Gaelicisation was clearly underway during the reigns of Caustantín and his successors. By a certain point, probably during the 11th century, all the inhabitants of Alba had become fully Gaelicised Scots, by the 10th century, Gaelic had become the dominant language throughout northern and western Scotland, the Gaelo-Pictic Kingdom of Alba. Its spread to southern Scotland, was even and totalizing. Place name analysis suggests dense usage of Gaelic in Galloway and adjoining areas to the north and west as well as in West Lothian, less dense usage is suggested for north Ayrshire, Renfrewshire, the Clyde Valley and eastern Dumfriesshire. In south-eastern Scotland, there is no evidence that Gaelic was ever widely spoken, the area shifted from Cumbric to Old English during its long incorporation into the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Northumbria
3.
Scotland
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Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and covers the northern third of the island of Great Britain. It shares a border with England to the south, and is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with the North Sea to the east. In addition to the mainland, the country is made up of more than 790 islands, including the Northern Isles, the Kingdom of Scotland emerged as an independent sovereign state in the Early Middle Ages and continued to exist until 1707. By inheritance in 1603, James VI, King of Scots, became King of England and King of Ireland, Scotland subsequently entered into a political union with the Kingdom of England on 1 May 1707 to create the new Kingdom of Great Britain. The union also created a new Parliament of Great Britain, which succeeded both the Parliament of Scotland and the Parliament of England. Within Scotland, the monarchy of the United Kingdom has continued to use a variety of styles, titles, the legal system within Scotland has also remained separate from those of England and Wales and Northern Ireland, Scotland constitutes a distinct jurisdiction in both public and private law. Glasgow, Scotlands largest city, was one of the worlds leading industrial cities. Other major urban areas are Aberdeen and Dundee, Scottish waters consist of a large sector of the North Atlantic and the North Sea, containing the largest oil reserves in the European Union. This has given Aberdeen, the third-largest city in Scotland, the title of Europes oil capital, following a referendum in 1997, a Scottish Parliament was re-established, in the form of a devolved unicameral legislature comprising 129 members, having authority over many areas of domestic policy. Scotland is represented in the UK Parliament by 59 MPs and in the European Parliament by 6 MEPs, Scotland is also a member nation of the British–Irish Council, and the British–Irish Parliamentary Assembly. Scotland comes from Scoti, the Latin name for the Gaels, the Late Latin word Scotia was initially used to refer to Ireland. By the 11th century at the latest, Scotia was being used to refer to Scotland north of the River Forth, alongside Albania or Albany, the use of the words Scots and Scotland to encompass all of what is now Scotland became common in the Late Middle Ages. Repeated glaciations, which covered the land mass of modern Scotland. It is believed the first post-glacial groups of hunter-gatherers arrived in Scotland around 12,800 years ago, the groups of settlers began building the first known permanent houses on Scottish soil around 9,500 years ago, and the first villages around 6,000 years ago. The well-preserved village of Skara Brae on the mainland of Orkney dates from this period and it contains the remains of an early Bronze Age ruler laid out on white quartz pebbles and birch bark. It was also discovered for the first time that early Bronze Age people placed flowers in their graves, in the winter of 1850, a severe storm hit Scotland, causing widespread damage and over 200 deaths. In the Bay of Skaill, the storm stripped the earth from a large irregular knoll, when the storm cleared, local villagers found the outline of a village, consisting of a number of small houses without roofs. William Watt of Skaill, the laird, began an amateur excavation of the site, but after uncovering four houses
4.
North West England
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North West England, one of nine official regions of England, consists of the five counties of Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside. The North West had a population of 7,052,000 in 2011 and it is the third most populated region in the United Kingdom after the South East and Greater London. North West England is bounded to the east by the Peak District, the region extends from the Scottish Borders in the north to the West Midlands region in the south. To its southwest is North Wales, amongst the better known of the North Wests physiographical features are the Lake District and the Cheshire Plain. The highest point in North West England is Scafell Pike, Cumbria, Windermere is the largest natural lake in England. Broad Crag Tarn on Broad Crag is Englands highest lake, wast Water is Englands deepest lake, being 74m deep. A mix of rural and urban landscape, two large conurbations, centred on Liverpool and Manchester, occupy much of the south of the region. The north of the region, comprising Cumbria and northern Lancashire, is rural, as is the far south which encompasses parts of the Cheshire Plain. The region includes parts of three National parks and three areas of Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, source, Office for National Statistics Mid Year Population Estimates North West Englands population accounts for just over 13% of Englands overall population. 37. 86% of the North Wests population resides in Greater Manchester,21. 39% in Lancashire,20. 30% in Merseyside,14. 76% in Cheshire and 7. 41% live in the largest county by area, Cumbria. According to 2009 Office for National Statistics estimates,91. 6% of people in the region describe themselves as White,88. 4% White British,1. 0% White Irish and 2. 2% White Other. The Mixed Race population makes up 1. 3% of the regions population, there are 323,800 South Asians, making up 4. 7% of the population, and 1. 1% Black Britons. 0. 6% of the population are Chinese and 0. 5% of people belong to ethnic group. North West England is a diverse region, with Manchester. 19. 4% of Blackburn with Darwens population are Muslim, the third highest among all local authorities in the United Kingdom, Areas such as Moss Side in Greater Manchester are home to a 30%+ Black British population. In contrast, the town of St. Helens in Merseyside, one in five of the population in the North West is Catholic, a result of large-scale Irish emigration in the nineteenth century as well as the high number of English recusants in Lancashire. For top-tier authorities, Manchester has the highest teenage pregnancy rate in the region, for council districts, Burnley has the highest rate, closely followed by Hyndburn, both in Lancashire. For top-tier authorities, Cheshire has the lowest teenage pregnancy rate, for council districts, Eden has the lowest rate closely followed by South Lakeland, both in Cumbria
5.
North East England
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North East England is one of the nine regions of England that are classified at the first level of NUTS for statistical purposes. It covers Northumberland, County Durham, Tyne and Wear, the region is home to three large conurbations, Teesside, Wearside, and Tyneside, the latter of which is the largest of the three and the eighth most populous conurbation in the United Kingdom. The city of Durham is the county town of County Durham, other large settlements in the region include Darlington, Gateshead, Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, South Shields, Stockton-on-Tees and Washington. The region is hilly and sparsely populated in the North and West. The highest point in the region is The Cheviot, in the Cheviot Hills, Peters Church in Monkwearmouth, Sunderland and St. Pauls in Jarrow also hold significant historical value and have a joint bid to become a World Heritage Site. The area has a strong religious past, as can be seen in such as the Lindisfarne Gospels. The work of the 7th-century Cuthbert, Bede and Hilda of Whitby being hugely influential in the church and are still venerated today. Bede is regarded as the greatest Anglo-Saxon scholar and his best known work is The Ecclesiastical History of the English People. This body of work is thought to have been done in honour of Cuthbert, British history changed forever that day and three hundred years of Viking raids, battles and settlement were to persist until William the Conqueror defeated King Harold at Hastings in 1066. The last independent Northumbrian king from 947–8 was Eric Bloodaxe who died in battle at the Battle of Stainmore, Westmorland, after Eric Bloodaxes death, all England was ruled by Eadred the grandson of Alfred the Great and so began the machinery of national government. Today the Viking legacy can still be found in the language and place names of Northeast England, the name Newcastle comes from the new castle built shortly after their conquest in 1080 by Robert Curthose, William the Conquerors eldest son. North East England has a climate with narrower temperature ranges than further south in England. Met Office operates several stations in the region. The stations nearest significant urban areas are Durham, Stockton-on-Tees and Tynemouth, the warmest summers in the region are found in Stockton-on-Tees and the Middlesbrough area with a 1981-2010 July average high of 20.4 °C. The summers on the coastlines are clearly cooler than in the southern and central inland areas. Moving further inland, frosts during winter gets more common due to the higher elevation and these companies are members of the Northeast of England Process Industry Cluster. The early chemical industry in this region was however primarily Tyneside based and associated with the manufacture of soap and glass. The most important chemical activity in the 18th and 19th centuries was the manufacture of alkali to make soap, what came out of the industrial revolution was a period when the Northeast of Englands economy was dominated by iron and steel, coal mining and shipbuilding
6.
FirstGroup
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FirstGroup is a British transport group, registered and operating in the United Kingdom. The company also operates services in Ireland, Canada and the United States. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE250 Index, FirstGroup originated from the deregulation of bus services in the United Kingdom in 1986, whereby private companies purchased nationalised and municipal bus operators. In September 1986 the Somerset based services of the Bristol Omnibus Company that were rebranded in 1985 as Badgerline were purchased in a management buyout, as Badgerline Group, it expanded through acquisition purchasing other formerly nationalised bus companies in England and Wales. In January 1989 Grampian Regional Transport, the bus operator in Aberdeen owned by Grampian Regional Council, was privatised in a management buyout led by its general manager Moir Lockhead. As GRT Bus Group, it expanded through acquisition purchasing six former nationalised bus companies in England and Scotland, in April 1995 FirstBus was formed through the merger of the Badgerline and GRT Bus Groups, with fleets in England, Wales and Scotland. Aberdeen was selected as the headquarters, at the time of the merger, FirstBus had 5,600 buses,4,000 of which came from Badgerline. Badgerlines Trevor Smallwood became chairman of FirstBus, while GRT head Moir Lockhead became deputy chairman, FirstBus continued the policy of growth by acquisition acquiring former council owned operations and companies formerly owned by English, Welsh and Scottish nationalised operators. FirstBus went on to larger urban metropolitan operators by taking advantage of the privatisation of the PTE bus operations. FirstBus acquired GM Buses North in Manchester and Strathclyde Buses in Glasgow in 1996, Mainline in South Yorkshire and CentreWest in London in 1997, and Capital Citybus in London in 1998. The company was renamed FirstGroup in December 1997 after the company moved into railways in February 1996 with the privatisation of British Rail, through a 24. In March 1998 FirstGroup purchased the 75. 5% shares in Great Western Holdings it did not already own and rebranded the franchises First Great Western and First North Western. In September 1998 FirstGroup made its first overseas foray when New World First Bus commenced operating bus services in Hong Kong formerly operated by China Motor Bus, FirstGroup had a 26% shareholding in the joint venture. In May 2000 FirstGroup sold its shares to joint venture partner New World Development, in September 1999 FirstGroup purchased Ryder Public Transport Services, a provider of school bus transportation in the United States. In May 2000 FirstGroup began operating the London Tramlink concession under contract to Transport for London, in August 2003 FirstGroup purchased GB Railways which owned Anglia Railways and GB Railfreight and held 80% of the shares in Hull Trains. Having not been shortlisted for the Greater Anglia franchise, this gave FirstGroup another chance to bid, however it was unsuccessful and the franchise was awarded to National Express from April 2004 including the services operated by First Great Eastern. In November 2003 FirstGroup purchased a 90% shareholding in Irish coach operator Aircoach, in February 2004 FirstGroups joint venture with Keolis commenced operating the First TransPennine Express rail franchise, FirstGroup having a 55% shareholding. In April 2004 FirstGroup commenced operating the First Great Western Link franchise, in December 2004 the remainder of First North Western passed to Northern Rail, some services having already been transferred to Arriva Trains Wales and FirstTranspennine Express
7.
Wayback Machine
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The Internet Archive launched the Wayback Machine in October 2001. It was set up by Brewster Kahle and Bruce Gilliat, and is maintained with content from Alexa Internet, the service enables users to see archived versions of web pages across time, which the archive calls a three dimensional index. Since 1996, the Wayback Machine has been archiving cached pages of websites onto its large cluster of Linux nodes and it revisits sites every few weeks or months and archives a new version. Sites can also be captured on the fly by visitors who enter the sites URL into a search box, the intent is to capture and archive content that otherwise would be lost whenever a site is changed or closed down. The overall vision of the machines creators is to archive the entire Internet, the name Wayback Machine was chosen as a reference to the WABAC machine, a time-traveling device used by the characters Mr. Peabody and Sherman in The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, an animated cartoon. These crawlers also respect the robots exclusion standard for websites whose owners opt for them not to appear in search results or be cached, to overcome inconsistencies in partially cached websites, Archive-It. Information had been kept on digital tape for five years, with Kahle occasionally allowing researchers, when the archive reached its fifth anniversary, it was unveiled and opened to the public in a ceremony at the University of California, Berkeley. Snapshots usually become more than six months after they are archived or, in some cases, even later. The frequency of snapshots is variable, so not all tracked website updates are recorded, Sometimes there are intervals of several weeks or years between snapshots. After August 2008 sites had to be listed on the Open Directory in order to be included. As of 2009, the Wayback Machine contained approximately three petabytes of data and was growing at a rate of 100 terabytes each month, the growth rate reported in 2003 was 12 terabytes/month, the data is stored on PetaBox rack systems manufactured by Capricorn Technologies. In 2009, the Internet Archive migrated its customized storage architecture to Sun Open Storage, in 2011 a new, improved version of the Wayback Machine, with an updated interface and fresher index of archived content, was made available for public testing. The index driving the classic Wayback Machine only has a bit of material past 2008. In January 2013, the company announced a ground-breaking milestone of 240 billion URLs, in October 2013, the company announced the Save a Page feature which allows any Internet user to archive the contents of a URL. This became a threat of abuse by the service for hosting malicious binaries, as of December 2014, the Wayback Machine contained almost nine petabytes of data and was growing at a rate of about 20 terabytes each week. Between October 2013 and March 2015 the websites global Alexa rank changed from 162 to 208, in a 2009 case, Netbula, LLC v. Chordiant Software Inc. defendant Chordiant filed a motion to compel Netbula to disable the robots. Netbula objected to the motion on the ground that defendants were asking to alter Netbulas website, in an October 2004 case, Telewizja Polska USA, Inc. v. Echostar Satellite, No.02 C3293,65 Fed. 673, a litigant attempted to use the Wayback Machine archives as a source of admissible evidence, Telewizja Polska is the provider of TVP Polonia and EchoStar operates the Dish Network
8.
Train operating company
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A train operating company is a business operating passenger trains on the railway system of Great Britain under the collective National Rail brand. TOCs have existed since the privatisation of the network under the Railways Act 1993 and these operators can run services for the duration of the licence validity. The franchised operators have changed considerably since privatisation, previous franchises have been divided, merged, re-let to new operators, the term is also sometimes used to describe companies operating passenger or freight rail services over tracks that are owned by another company or a national network owner. Franchises were initially let by the Office of Passenger Rail Franchising and this was in turn replaced by the Strategic Rail Authority, which has since been abolished. For England and Wales, franchising is now the responsibility of the Department for Transport in the majority of cases, in Scotland, it is the responsibility of the Scottish Government. The Rail Delivery Group provides a commonality for the TOCs and provides some centralised co-ordination and its activities include the provision of a national timetable and online journey planner facility, and the operation of the various Railcard discount schemes. Eurostar is also a member of RDG, though it is not itself a TOC, until 2005 this role was performed by the Strategic Rail Authority. Most passenger trains are owned by a number of Rolling Stock Companies and are leased to the individual TOCs. However, a handful of TOCs own and maintain some of their own rolling stock, train operating companies also operate most of the networks stations, in their role as station facility owners, in which they lease the buildings and associated land from Network Rail. Network Rail manages some major railway stations and several stations are operated by London Underground or other companies, all passenger TOCs in Great Britain are privately owned. The majority of these franchises to operate rail services on specific parts of the railway. A third, Wrexham & Shropshire, with services between London and Wrexham, no longer exists, in addition, there are operators that fall outside the purview of National Rail, which operate specific services which are recent additions to Britains railways. The main examples are Eurostar, which operates to the continent via the Channel Tunnel, and Heathrow Express, many of the train operating companies are in fact parts of larger companies which operate multiple franchises. The franchising process was implemented, with private companies taking over the shadow franchises. Two shadow franchises, Chiltern Lines and Great Western Trains were purchased by their own management teams, Great Westerns management also bought North West Regional Railways and renamed it North Western Trains. Great Western Holdings, the owner of the operator of inter-city services from London Paddington Great Western Trains was sold to FirstBus. The TOC North Western Trains was also owned by Great Western Holdings, after the takeover FirstBus was renamed FirstGroup and the TOCs renamed First Great Western and First North Western. The completion of the link to Heathrow Airport led to Heathrow Express
9.
ScotRail (National Express)
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ScotRail was a train operating company in Scotland owned by National Express that operated the ScotRail franchise from March 1997 until October 2004. Prior to March 1997 ScotRail ran the trains and after October 2004 First ScotRail ran them, ScotRail operated all passenger train services in Scotland, with the exception of the Arriva Trains Northern, GNER, Virgin CrossCountry and Virgin Trains West Coast services from England. ScotRail operated services into England with services to Carlisle and Newcastle, ScotRail contracted English Welsh & Scottish to haul the Caledonian Sleeper services to London Euston. Class 90s were used south of Edinburgh and Glasgow Central with Class 37s used on the portion to Fort William and Class 47s to Aberdeen, from June 2001, Class 67s began to take over. A dedicated pool was created due to the need to fit cast steel brakes, ScotRail ordered 55 three-carriage Class 170 Turbostars to replace locomotive hauled stock and 40 three-carriage Class 334 Junipers to replace Class 303s. In 2000, two Class 150s were transferred to Arriva Trains Northern, Class 158s were also transferred, four going to Arriva Trains Northern and two to Wessex Trains. The Class 101, Class 303 and Class 305s were all withdrawn, in December 2001, five Class 322s were sublet from West Anglia Great Northern, they were returned in March 2004. To replace them ex Virgin West Coast Mark 3s were leased, scotRails fleet was maintained at Haymarket, Glasgow Shields Road and Inverness depots. In July 2003, the Scottish Executive and the Strategic Rail Authority announced Arriva, FirstGroup, in June 2004, the franchise was awarded to FirstGroup, with the services operated by ScotRail transferring to First ScotRail on 17 October 2004
10.
Abellio ScotRail
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Abellio ScotRail, operating services under the name ScotRail, is the national train operating company of Scotland. A subisidary of Abellio, it has operated the ScotRail franchise since 1 April 2015, in November 2013, Transport Scotland announced that Abellio, Arriva, FirstGroup, MTR Corporation and National Express had been shortlisted to bid for the new ScotRail franchise. In October 2014, the franchise was awarded to Abellio, the franchise will operate for seven years with a three-year extension available contingent on performance criteria being met. Abellio began operating the franchise on 1 April 2015, on 6 September 2015, Abellio ScotRail commenced operating services on the Borders Railway. In June 2016 the RMT union announced that train guards would be going in strike several times during the months in protest of more driver only trains. An agreement was reached in September 2016, bringing an end to the dispute and it was agreed that the new Class 385 trains will have the doors controlled by both the driver and guard, with the driver opening the doors and the guard closing them. On 20 January 2017 the Managing Director of ScotRail and the ScotRail alliance stepped down from his role after 18 months in the company, within a few days Alex Hynes was named as the new Managing Director. The franchise agreement requires the introduction of Great Scottish Scenic Railway trains on the West Highland, Far North, Kyle, Borders Railway, steam special services are also promoted by Abellio ScotRail. Abellio ScotRail operates 354 stations in Scotland, not included are Glasgow Prestwick Airport station, owned and operated by the airport, as well as both Edinburgh Waverley and Glasgow Central, which are managed by Network Rail. Abellio ScotRail operates Lockerbie even though none of its services call there and it also took over management of Dunbar, previously operated by Virgin Trains East Coast, in June 2015. Abellio ScotRails fleet is maintained at Edinburgh Haymarket, Glasgow Eastfield, Glasgow Shields Road, Corkerhill, Abellio ScotRail began operations with the rolling stock below, mainly transferred from First ScotRail, Abellio ScotRail has mentioned the following as part of the future rolling stock. This new rolling stock will result in 10 Class 156, eight Class 158 and 21 Class 170s returning to their leasing companies, five of the 156s, all the 158s and 16 of the 170s released will join Northern when their leases expires in 2018. Transport Scotland negotiated to retain an extra 13 Class 170s to support services through Fife to Aberdeen, media related to Abellio ScotRail at Wikimedia Commons Official website
11.
Caledonian Sleeper
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Caledonian Sleeper is the collective name for overnight sleeper train services between London and Scotland, in the United Kingdom. It is one of only two services on the railway in the United Kingdom. Two services depart London each night from Sunday to Friday and travel via the West Coast Main Line to Scotland, the earlier departure divides at Edinburgh into portions for Aberdeen, Fort William and Inverness. The later departure serves Edinburgh and Glasgow splitting at Carstairs, five London bound portions depart from these destinations each night, combining into two trains at Edinburgh and Carstairs. Since April 2015, the Caledonian Sleeper has been a franchise operated by Serco. Prior to this it was part of the ScotRail franchise, Sleeper trains had operated between London and Scotland since the completion of the line in the 1850s. Services operated from both London Euston via the West Coast Main Line including the Royal Highlander and London Kings Cross via the East Coast Main Line until the latter were withdrawn in May 1988. InterCity planned to remove all seating accommodation on the services from May 1992. After 12 months the Stagecoach carriages were withdrawn, on 5 March 1995, responsibility for operation of the Anglo-Scottish services passed within British Rail from InterCity West Coast to ScotRail. Eventually British Rail agreed to retain the Fort William portion, the motorail service was withdrawn in 1995. On 4 June 1996, the service was relaunched as the Caledonian Sleeper with the Night Caledonian, Night Scotsman, Night Aberdonian, Royal Highlander, on 31 March 1997, as part of the ScotRail franchise it was taken over by National Express. In March 1998, the West Coast Main Line portions which had been hauled by Virgin Trains Class 87s, were taken over by English Welsh & Scottish Class 90s. In January 2000, sitting carriages were introduced with 11 ex Virgin Trains Mark 2 carriages refurbished at Wolverton railway works with first class recliners, at the same time the Mark 3 sleeping carriages were refurbished with a purple and blue livery applied. From June 2001, Class 67s began to replace Class 47s on the Aberdeen, in June 2006, they replaced Class 37s on the Fort William portion. On 17 October 2004, the Caledonian Sleeper along with the rest of the ScotRail franchise was taken over by First ScotRail, the carriages were painted in FirstGroups corporate blue, pink and white livery as were three Class 90s. In 2012 the Scottish Government announced that as part of the reletting of the ScotRail franchise from April 2015 and it was stated that a total of £100 million would be invested in new and additional rolling stock. In June 2013, Transport Scotland announced Arriva, FirstGroup and Serco had been shortlisted to bid for the new franchise, in May 2014, the franchise was awarded to Serco with a commitment to replace the Mark 2 and Mark 3 coaching stock by 2018. Some terminus station have lounges and ticketing/customer service desks, two trains depart London Euston on six nights per week, Sunday to Friday, heading north on the West Coast Main Line
12.
Great Western Railway (train operating company)
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Great Western Railway is a British train operating company owned by FirstGroup. It manages 208 stations and its trains call at over 270, GWR operates long-distance inter-city services along the Great Western Main Line to South West England and South Wales, as well as the Night Riviera sleeper service between London and Penzance. The company began operating in February 1996 as Great Western Trains, in December 1998 it became First Great Western after FirstGroup bought out its partners shares in Great Western Holdings. In April 2006, First Great Western, First Great Western Link and Wessex Trains were combined into the new Greater Western franchise and brought under the First Great Western brand. The company adopted its current name and a new livery in September 2015 to coincide with the start of a franchise that is due to run until April 2020. Great Western Holdings was owned by some former British Rail managers, FirstBus, in March 1998, FirstGroup bought out its partners stakes to give it 100% ownership. In December 1998, the franchise was rebranded as First Great Western, on 1 April 2004, First Great Western Link commenced operating the Thames Trains franchise. It operated local services from Paddington to Slough, Henley-on-Thames, Reading, Didcot, Oxford, Newbury, Bedwyn, Worcester, Hereford, Banbury. It also operated services from Reading to Gatwick Airport, and from Reading to Basingstoke, on 1 April 2006, the Great Western, Great Western Link and Wessex Trains franchises were combined into a new Greater Western franchise. FirstGroup, National Express and Stagecoach were shortlisted to bid for new franchise. On 13 December 2005, it was announced that FirstGroup had won the franchise, originally, First planned to subdivide its services into three categories based on routes. Following feedback from staff and stakeholders, the decision was taken to re-brand, in May 2011, FirstGroup announced that it had decided not to take up the option to extend its franchise beyond the end of March 2013. FirstGroup stated that, in the light of the plan to electrify the Great Western route from London via Bristol to Cardiff. CEO Tim OToole said, We believe we are best placed to manage these projects, in March 2012 Arriva, FirstGroup, National Express and Stagecoach were shortlisted to bid for the new franchise. The ITT ran from the end of July until October 2012, the winner would have been announced in March 2013, and taken on the franchise from 21 July 2013 until the end of July 2028. The new franchise would include the introduction of new Intercity Express Trains, capacity enhancements, the award of the franchise was again delayed in October 2012, while the Department for Transport reviewed the way rail franchises are awarded. In January 2013, the government announced that the current competition for the franchise had been terminated, a two-year franchise extension until September 2015 was agreed in October 2013, and subsequently extended until March 2019. A further extension to April 2019 was granted in March 2015, the company rebranded itself as Great Western Railway on 20 September 2015 and introduced a green livery in recognition of the former Great Western Railway
13.
National Express
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It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE250 Index. In 1972 the state owned National Bus Company decided to bring together the scheduled services operated by its bus operating companies in the United Kingdom under one brand. Sir Frederick Wood, a prominent businessman and industrialist, was asked to oversee the creation of new business model. Initially branded as National, the National Express brand was first used in 1974, with the privatisation of the National Bus Company in the 1980s, National Express was subject to a management buyout in March 1988. The management team began to diversify, and in 1989 purchased Crosville Wales, a new management team took over the company in July 1991, with the backing of mid-market private equity firm, ECI Partners. The new team refocused the group on its activities and sold Crosville Wales to British Bus. In October 1991 it purchased Speedlink, an operator of services between Gatwick and Heathrow Airports. In December 1992 National Express Group plc was floated on the London Stock Exchange, in 1993 Scottish Citylink, Eurolines and East Midlands Airport were acquired. In April 1995 National Express purchased West Midlands Travel, the council owned bus network of Birmingham. This began the family of Travel. Bournemouth Airport was acquired in April 1995, in April 1996 National Express commenced operating its first UK rail franchises, Gatwick Express and Midland Mainline. Other franchises won in 1997 were Silverlink, Central Trains and ScotRail, to comply with a Competition Commission ruling on it winning the ScotRail franchise, National Express sold the Scottish Citylink operation to Metroline in August 1998. In February 1997 Taybus Public Transport was acquired and rebranded Travel Dundee, in February 1999 Robinson Bus Service was purchased followed in August 1999 by Durham Transportation. These acquisitions placed National Express as one of the top three United States school bus operators, in May 1999 National Express purchased Australias largest private bus operator, National Bus Company. National Bus Company had bus operations in Brisbane, Melbourne and Perth, Westbus also had a London coach operation. In August 1999 National Express won the M>Train, M>Tram and V/Line Passenger rail franchises in the Australian state of Victoria, in January 2000, National Express expanded into the American market by acquiring ATC, a public transportation operator. In July 2000 Prism Rail was purchased adding the c2c, Wales & Borders, Wessex Trains, in December 2002 National Express handed in its Victoria rail franchises having been unable to renegotiate financial terms with the State Government. In February 2004 the London bus operations of Connex were purchased and rebranded Travel London, in April 2004 National Express East Anglia commenced operating the Greater Anglia rail franchise
14.
Scottish Government
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The Scottish Government is Scotlands devolved government. It was formally renamed in 2012 to the Scottish Government by section 12 of the Scotland Act 2012, the government consists of cabinet secretaries, who attend cabinet meetings, and ministers, who do not. It is led by the first minister, who selects the cabinet secretaries, the Scottish Government is responsible for devolved matters, and those not explicitly reserved to the British Parliament in Westminster, by Schedule 5 to the Scotland Act 1998. Devolved matters that were decided on by the Scotland Act 1998 included healthcare provision, education, justice, policing, rural affairs, economic development, the Scottish Government also has administrative responsibility for some matters where it does not have legislative power. An example is Sections 36 &37 of the Electricity Act 1989 which allow the Scottish Government to authorise power transmission lines and grant power generation consents. The Scottish Governments budget is decided upon by the grant that is formulated using the Barnett Formula with the ability to also increase or decrease income tax rates. In the financial year of 2016–17, the annual budget was £37.2 billion. The government is led by the First Minister, the Scottish Parliament nominates one of its members to be appointed as first minister by the monarch. He or she is assisted by various cabinet secretaries with individual portfolios, Ministers are similarly appointed to assist cabinet secretaries in their work. The Scottish law officers, the Lord Advocate and Solicitor General, can be appointed from outside the parliaments membership and they are appointed by the monarch on the recommendation of the first minister. The first minister, the secretaries and the Scottish law officers are the members of the Scottish Government. They are collectively known as the Scottish Ministers, the members of the government have substantial influence over legislation in Scotland, putting forward the majority of bills that are successful in becoming Acts of the Scottish Parliament. The structure of the team used by the Scottish National Party after its election victory in May 2007 differs from those used by previous governments. The title cabinet secretary was introduced to replace what were called ministers, the cabinet secretaries and ministers are, The Scottish Cabinet is the group of ministers who are collectively responsible for all Scottish Government policy. While parliament is in session, the cabinet meets weekly, normally meetings are held on Tuesday afternoons in Bute House, the official residence of the first minister. The cabinet consists of the secretaries, excluding the Scottish Law Officers. The Lord Advocate attends meetings of the cabinet only when requested by the first minister, the cabinet is supported by the Cabinet Secretariat, which is based at St Andrews House. Scottish Government also includes a service that supports the Scottish ministers
15.
Strategic Rail Authority
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The Strategic Rail Authority was a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom set up under the Transport Act 2000 to provide strategic direction for the railway industry. Its motto was Britains railway, properly delivered and it incorporated the former Conservative governments Director of Passenger Rail Franchising. The SRA was placed on a legal basis by the Transport Act 2000. The government wanted the SRA to take a more interventionist role with Railtrack and its successor Network Rail and those powers rested with - and were jealously guarded by - the Rail Regulator, who frequently clashed with the SRA when he believed that it was over-reaching its jurisdiction. The SRA operated under directions and guidance from the Secretary of State for Transport, also in Scotland from the Scottish Minister for Transport, in Scotland the budget of the SRA was devolved to the Scottish Parliament under the terms of the Barnett Formula. On 15 July 2004 the Secretary of State for Transport, Alistair Darling MP, the Scottish Executive, the Welsh Assembly Government and the Greater London Authority were given some input in their areas. The SRAs first chairman was Sir Alastair Morton, from February 1999 until October 2001 and its first chief executive was Mike Grant. Its second chairman was Richard Bowker, who served between October 2001 and September 2004 and its third chairman was David Quarmby, and third chief executive Nick Newton, from September 2004 to abolition
16.
Arriva
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Arriva is a multinational public transport company headquartered in Sunderland, England. It was established in 1938 as T Cowie and through a number of mergers and acquisitions was rebranded Arriva in 1997, Arriva operates bus, coach, train, tram and waterbus services in 14 countries across Europe. As at December 2015 it employed 55,000 people and operated 2.2 billion passenger journeys annually and it operates as three divisions, UK Bus, UK Rail and Mainland Europe. The company was founded by TSK Cowie in Sunderland in 1938 as a motorcycle dealer trading as T Cowie Limited. In 1948 the business was re-launched by Tom Cowie, the founders son, T Cowie plc was floated in December 1964, and in 1965 it bought out the first of many car dealerships. In 1972 it formed Cowie Contract Hire, which became the largest contract hire business in the UK, in 1980 T Cowie made its first foray into bus operations, buying the Grey-Green operation in London from the George Ewer Group. In 1984 T Cowie plc acquired the Hanger Group, which included Interleasing, further leasing companies acquired were Marley Leasing, RoyScot Drive and Ringway Leasing. Following the retirement of Tom Cowie, the company was renamed Cowie Group plc in April 1994, as part of the privatisation of London bus services, Cowie Group acquired the Leaside Buses and South London Transport business units in September 1994 and January 1995. Cowie plc bought United Automobile Services and British Bus in July and August 1996, as a result of these transactions, in October 1996 Cowie Group was reclassified on the stock exchange from a motor dealer to a transport group. In November 1997 the company was rebranded as Arriva plc, in that year it also bought Unibus in Denmark, its first venture outside the United Kingdom. In June 1999 Arriva sold its business to General Motors. In February 2000 Arriva purchased MTL Holdings, which included its first UK rail franchises, Merseyrail Electrics, in 2002/03 Arriva sold its motor-retailing businesses and in February 2006 it sold its vehicle-rental business to Northgate. In April 2008 the LNWR train maintenance business in England was acquired, in 2010 it was reported that the government-owned railway companies of France and Germany were considering making takeover bids for the business. SNCF subsidiary Keolis and Arriva entered discussions regarding a merger, the takeover was approved by the European Commission in August 2010, conditional on Deutsche Bahn disposing of some Arriva services in Germany. The takeover took effect on 27 August 2010, and Arriva was delisted from the London Stock Exchange on 31 August 2010, in late 2011 Arriva acquired Grand Central Railway and sold its Arriva Scotland West bus operation. In May 2013 Arriva purchased Veolia Transports Central European business with 3,400 vehicles, in May 2013 Arriva entered the Croatian bus market with the purchase of Veolia Transport Central Europe with 120 buses. Arriva group bought three medium-sized bus transport companies in 2006 and 2007 end established its own transport company Arriva vlaky s. r. o. in 2009. These four companies are owned through Arriva holding Česká republika s. r. o. which is owned by the Dutch company Arriva Coöperatie W. A
17.
Strathclyde Partnership for Transport
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This includes responsibility for operating Glasgows Subway, the third oldest in the world, after the London and Budapest underground railways. In the 1980s it was replaced by the Strathclyde Passenger Transport Executive, section 40 of the Local Government etc. The new national agency Transport Scotland was created at the same time, at this latest reorganisation SPT gained responsibility for planning for all regional transport though it lost a number of specific powers relating to rail franchising and concessionary fares. There will be no change in abbreviation or branding or in its operational functions. The bus deregulation by the Transport Act 1985 deregulated the bus industry, the main bus operator in Glasgow City is now First Glasgow. SPT owns Glasgows Buchanan Bus Station, the largest bus station in Scotland and they used a new livery which was a variation of the previous GCT colours of green, yellow and cream. The new livery had Verona green on the panels. A stylised GG logo was applied to the yellow side panels. At bus stops, pennents had GG branding along with Scottish Bus Group branding on bus stops that were used by the SBG. At the start of the 1980s GGPTE was replaced by SPTE, logos also changed, stylised Trans-Clyde lettering was displayed below the GG logo, which SPTE was also using on rail services and the Underground at the time. Gradually the GG logo was discontinued, and Trans-Clyde was used although a Volvo Citybus prototype was branded in the same livery with Strathclyde instead. Bus Stop pennents was replaced with Trans-Clyde branding, Bus stop pennents were given Strathclyde Transport branding by having a sticker placed on top of the old Trans-Clyde name. The name lasted until 1986 due to deregulation of the bus industry, The orange and black scheme was kept. New bus stop pennents were given with Strathclyde Transport branding but without Scottish Bus Group branding, the Regional Council logo was briefly retained, later on Strathclydes Buses was used alone. However some Leyland Atlanteans from the Nottingham & Newcastle fleets were bought to add to the new Olympians, the bus service was still in PTE control until 1993 when Strathclydes Buses became employee-owned. At that time SPTE acquired Buchanan Bus Station from Scottish Citylink which led to a refurbishment completed in 1995. Both Strathclydes Buses and GCT colour Schemes lasted until 1996 when First Glasgow took over Strathclydes Buses, a new segregated bus scheme is currently being planned between Glasgow city centre and Glasgow Harbour called Clyde Fastlink. Currently SPT bus stop pennents have SPT branding with the council area logo next to the SPT logo
18.
Saltire
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A saltire, also called Saint Andrews Cross, is a heraldic symbol in the form of a diagonal cross, like the shape of the letter X in Roman type. The word comes from the Middle French sautoir, possibly owing to the shape of the areas in the design. It appears in flags, including those of Scotland and Jamaica. A variant, also appearing on many past and present flags, a warning sign in the shape of a saltire is also used to indicate the point at which a railway line intersects a road at a level crossing. In Unicode, the cross is encoded at U+2613 ☓ saltire, see X mark#Unicode for similar symbols that might be more accessible. The saltire appears on vexilla that are represented consistently on coinage of Christian emperors of Rome, in the ninth and tenth century the saltire was revived in Constantinople as a symbol of Christian-imperial power. Anne Roes detected the symbol, which appears with balls in the quadrants formed by the arms of the chi-cross. She suggested that early Christians endorsed its solar symbolism as appropriate to Christ and she also wrote, although it cannot be proved. In the white saltire of St. Andrew we still have a reminiscence of the old standard of the Persepolitan kingdom, when two or more saltires appear, they are usually blazoned as cut off. A saltorel is a saltire, the term is usually defined as one-half the width of the saltire. A field per saltire is divided into four areas by a saltire-shaped cut, otherwise, each of the four divisions may be blazoned separately. Examples include, Suffolk County Council, England, The Corporation of the Municipality of Brighton, when five or more compact charges are in saltire, one is in the center and one or more lie on each arm of an invisible saltire. The Saint Andrews Cross was worn as a badge on hats in Scotland, the Cross of Burgundy, a form of the Saint Andrews Cross, is used in numerous flags across Europe and the Americas. It was first used in the 15th century as an emblem by the Valois Dukes of Burgundy, the Duchy of Burgundy, forming a large part of eastern France and the Low Countries, was inherited by the House of Habsburg on the extinction of the Valois ducal line. As a result, the Cross of Burgundy has appeared in a variety of flags connected with territories formerly part of the Burgundian or Habsburg inheritance. Examples of such diversity include the Spanish naval ensign, the flag of Carlism, the flag of the Dutch municipality of Eijsden, the naval ensign of the Imperial Russian and Russian navies is a blue saltire on a white field. Prior to the Union the Royal Scots Navy used a red ensign incorporating the St Andrews Cross, with its colours exchanged, the same design forms part of the arms and flag of Nova Scotia. The Brazilian cities of Rio de Janeiro and Fortaleza also use a blue saltire on a white field, the flags of the Spanish island of Tenerife and the remote Colombian islands of San Andrés and Providencia also use a white saltire on a blue field
19.
Serco
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Serco Group plc is a British outsourcing company based in Hook, Hampshire. It operates public and private transport and traffic control, aviation, military weapons, detention centres, call centres, prisons, Serco has been involved in a variety of controversies having a history of problems, failures, fatal errors and overcharging. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE250 Index, Serco operates in Continental Europe, the Middle East, the Asia Pacific region and North America, but the majority of its turnover comes from the UK. Serco was founded in 1929 as RCA Services Limited, a United Kingdom division of the Radio Corporation of America, following the takeover of RCA by General Electric in late 1985, RCA Services Limited was bought out by its local management. It changed its name to Serco in 1987 and has been a London Stock Exchange listed company since 1988, on 29 December 2008, Serco acquired SI International. In November 2014 its share price, which stood at 674p before the scandal broke in 2013 collapsed to 218. 7p. The new chief executive Rupert Soames sold off scores of divisions, on 17 November 2014, it was announced that Alastair Lyons would resign from his position as chairman of Serco. Lyons referred to “operational mis-steps” for which he took “ultimate responsibility”, Serco made a loss of £991 million in 2014, reducing to a loss of £69.4 million in 2015. Sir Roy Gardner was appointed as Non-Executive Chairman on 28 May 2015, Serco, as well as its rival G4S, was accused of overcharging the Ministry of Justice on its contract to tag offenders. The firm issued a warning for 2014 as a result of the costs of becoming embroiled in an electronic tagging scandal. Serco repaid £68.5 million to the government for its overcharging on the contract and we Own It held a protest outside the companys annual general meeting on 8 May called Sick of Serco. The group brought sick bags and proposed a Public Service Users Bill that would provide better, Serco operates the National Border Targeting Centre for UK Visas and Immigration and provides the carrier gateway—the interface between carriers and the agency. Serco operates the Santander Cycles scheme and the NorthLink Ferries Northern Isles lifeline ferry service in Scotland, Serco also has a joint venture with Abellio, the international arm of Dutch national rail operator Nederlandse Spoorwegen, to operate passenger trains in the UK. Serco-Abellio has a 25-year concession for Merseyrail in Liverpool until 2028 and it previously operated the Docklands Light Railway. On 31 March 2015, Serco commenced a 15-year contract to operate the Caledonian Sleeper between London and Scotland, Serco managed the UKs National Physical Laboratory until 2015 and also provides IT Services, Industrial Support and Cryogenic Operations Support and Maintenance at CERN. Serco also was part of a running the National Nuclear Laboratory under contract. In Britain Serco supplies electronic tagging devices for offenders and asylum seekers and it runs four prisons, a Young Offenders Institution and a Secure Training Centre. It has also operated two Immigration Removal Centres since 2007, Serco is also responsible for the contracted-out court escort services in the south-east area
20.
British Rail Class 170
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The Class 170 Turbostar is a British diesel multiple-unit train built by Bombardier Transportation at its Derby Litchurch Lane Works. Introduced after privatisation, these trains have operated regional as well as long-distance services, notable features shared are the aluminium alloy frame and Voith transmission as well as the general body shape, interior design and door fittings. The final drive is sourced from ZF instead of Gmeinder and the supplier changed to MTU. The engine and transmission are under the body, one bogie per coach is powered, all coaches in the set are powered. The units can work in multiple with trains in the 15X series, i. e. Sprinters and they are unable to operate in multiple with units in the 16X series due to different wiring arrangements. Seating arrangements are of both 2+1 and 2+2 formation, and give a seated capacity of between ~100 and ~200 per three-car set. Class 170 units have been categorised into six sub-classes, the specifications remain the same. Because of the different interior fittings the sub-classes differ in weight from one another by a small amount, all the subclasses were built at Derby works either under ADtranz or Bombardier Transportation ownership. Most units are owned by Porterbrook, although units 170 416–424 are owned by Eversholt Rail Group and they are leased to the train operating companies. Abellio ScotRail is the largest operator of the Class 170, with a fleet comprising 55 3-car sets, originally,34 of these had first-class accommodation. They are mainly used on Edinburgh–Glasgow, Inverness–Glasgow/Edinburgh and Aberdeen–Glasgow/Edinburgh services, a further four 3-car sets fitted with mini-buffets were obtained from Hull Trains, but the buffets are out of use. All units are allocated to Edinburgh Haymarket depot, in December 2008, half the standard-class-only units,170 450–5, were fitted with first-class sections. 170456 and 170457 were fitted with first class in December 2011, in April 2015,170 421-424 left ScotRail to go to Southern and be modified to become Class 171s. First TransPennine Express operated nine Class 170s, used on the Manchester to Hull route, from 9 September 2009, two Class 170s are used Sundays to Thursdays on the Cleethorpes–Manchester Airport service. The units were maintained by Bombardier Crofton, the work was carried out by Transys at Clacton-on-Sea. However, in March 2014 it was revealed that the nine Turbostars would move to Chiltern Railways, upon delivery, the Class 170s will be modified to allow them to be used with Chilterns existing Class 168s, and will be reclassified as Class 168/3s. Today, the numbers are 168321-168329. Hull Trains began its London Kings Cross to Hull services using Turbostars, in 2004, it received four of its own 3-car Class 170/3 units, and returned the original units to Anglia
21.
Forth Bridge
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The Forth Bridge is a cantilever railway bridge over the Firth of Forth in the east of Scotland,9 miles west of Edinburgh City Centre. It is considered an iconic structure and a symbol of Scotland and it was designed by the English engineers Sir John Fowler and Sir Benjamin Baker. It is sometimes referred to as the Forth Rail Bridge to distinguish it from the Forth Road Bridge, construction of the bridge began in 1882 and it was opened on 4 March 1890 by the Prince of Wales, the future Edward VII. The bridge spans the Forth between the villages of South Queensferry and North Queensferry and has a length of 8,094 feet. When it opened it had the longest single bridge span in the world. It continues to be the worlds second-longest single cantilever span, with a span of 1,709 feet, the bridge and its associated railway infrastructure are owned by Network Rail Infrastructure Limited. Prior to the construction of the bridge, ferry boats were used to cross the Firth. In 1806, a pair of tunnels, one for direction, was proposed. Experiments in late 1864 with weighted caissons achieved a pressure of 5 tons/ft2 on the silt, encouraging Bouch to continue with the design. In August 1865, Richard Hodgson, chairman of the NBR, proposed that the Company invest GB£18,000 to try a different kind of foundation, as the weighted caissons had not been successful. Bouch proposed using a large platform underneath the piers,80 by 60 by 7 feet weighed down with 10,000 tonnes of pig iron which would sink the wooden platform to the level of the silt. The platform was launched on 14 June 1866 after some difficulty in getting it to move down the greased planks it rested on, and then moored in the harbour for six weeks pending completion. In September 1866, a Committee of Shareholders investigating rumours of financial difficulties found that accounts had been falsified, and the chairman, by mid-1867 the NBR was nearly bankrupt, and all work on the Forth and Tay bridges was stopped. The North British Railway took over the ferry at Queensferry in 1867, after the Tay Bridge collapsed in 1879, confidence in Bouch dried up and the work stopped. After the disaster, which occurred in high winds for which Bouch had not properly accounted, the Board of Trade imposed a lateral wind allowance of 56 lbs/ft2. Bouchs design was abandoned on 13 January 1881, and Sir John Fowler, W. H. Barlow and T. E. Harrison. The Forth Bridge is 8,094 feet in length, and it consists of two main spans of 1,700 feet, two side spans of 680 ft, and 15 approach spans of 168 ft. Each main span consists of two 680 ft cantilever arms supporting a central 350 feet span truss, the weight of the bridge superstructure was 50,513 long tons, including the 6.5 million rivets used
22.
Inverness
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Inverness is a city in the Scottish Highlands. It is the centre for the Highland council area, and is regarded as the capital of the Highlands. It is the northernmost city in the United Kingdom and lies within the Great Glen at its north-eastern extremity where the River Ness enters the Moray Firth. At the latest, a settlement was established by the 6th century with the first royal charter being granted by Dabíd mac Maíl Choluim in the 12th century, the population of Inverness grew from 40,949 in 2001 to 46,870 in 2012. The Greater Inverness area, including Culloden and Westhill, had a population of 59,910 in 2012, Inverness is twinned with one German city, Augsburg, and two French towns, La Baule and Saint-Valery-en-Caux. Inverness College is the campus for the University of the Highlands and Islands. With around 8,500 students, Inverness College hosts around a quarter of all the University of the Highlands and Islands students, in 2014, a survey by a property website described Inverness as the happiest place in Scotland and the second happiest in the UK. Inverness was again found to be the happiest place in Scotland by a new study conducted in 2015, a 93 oz silver chain dating to 500–800 was found just to the south of Torvean in 1983. A church or a cell is thought to have been established by early Celtic monks on St Michaels Mount. The strategic location of Inverness has led to conflicts in the area. Reputedly there was a battle in the early 11th century between King Malcolm and Thorfinn of Norway at Blar Nam Feinne, to the southwest of the city, Inverness had four traditional fairs, including Legavrik or Leth-Gheamhradh, meaning midwinter, and Faoilleach. William the Lion granted Inverness four charters, by one of which it was created a royal burgh, of the Dominican friary founded by Alexander III in 1233, only one pillar and a worn knights effigy survive in a secluded graveyard near the town centre. Medieval Inverness suffered regular raids from the Western Isles, particularly by the MacDonald Lords of the Isles in the fifteenth century, in 1187 one Domhnall Bán led islanders in a battle at Torvean against men from Inverness Castle led by the governors son, Donnchadh Mac An Toisich. Both leaders were killed in the battle, Donald Ban is said to have buried in a large cairn near the river. Local tradition says that the citizens fought off the Clan Donald in 1340 at the Battle of Blairnacoi on Drumderfit Hill, Clan Munro defeated Clan Mackintosh in 1454 at the Battle of Clachnaharry just west of the city. Clan Donald and their allies stormed the castle during the Raid on Ross in 1491, the Clan Munro and Clan Fraser of Lovat took the castle for her. The house in which she lived meanwhile stood in Bridge Street until the 1970s, the only surviving modern remnant is a clock tower. Inverness played a role in the first Jacobite rising in 1689, in early May, it was besieged by a contingent of Jacobites led by MacDonell of Keppoch
23.
Dundee
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Dundee, officially the City of Dundee, is Scotlands fourth-largest city and the 51st-most-populous built-up area in the United Kingdom. The mid-year population estimate for 2015 was 148,210 which gave Dundee a population density of 2, 477/km2 or 6, 420/sq mi and it lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firth of Tay, which feeds into the North Sea. Under the name of Dundee City, it one of the 32 council areas used for local government in Scotland. Historically part of Angus, the city developed into a burgh in the late 12th century, rapid expansion was brought on by the Industrial Revolution, particularly in the 19th century when Dundee was the centre of the global jute industry. This, along with its major industries gave Dundee its epithet as the city of jute, jam. Biomedical and technological industries have arrived since the 1980s, and the city now accounts for 10% of the United Kingdoms digital-entertainment industry, Dundee has two universities — the University of Dundee and the Abertay University. In 2014 Dundee was recognised by the United Nations as the UKs first UNESCO City of Design for its contributions to fields including medical research, comics. A unique feature of Dundee is that its two football clubs Dundee United and Dundee F. C. have stadiums all but adjacent to each other. With the decline of industry, the city has adopted a plan to regenerate. The name Dundee is made up of two parts, the common Celtic place-name element dun, meaning fort, and a part that may derive from a Celtic element, cognate with the Gaelic dè. The situation of the town and its promotion by Earl David as a trading centre led to a period of prosperity, the earldom was passed down to Davids descendants, amongst whom was John Balliol. The town became a Royal Burgh on Johns coronation as king in 1292, the town and its castle were occupied by English forces for several years during the First War of Independence and recaptured by Robert the Bruce in early 1312. The original Burghal charters were lost during the occupation and subsequently renewed by Bruce in 1327, the burgh suffered considerably during the conflict known as the Rough Wooing of 1543 to 1550, and was occupied by the English forces of Andrew Dudley from 1547. In 1548, unable to defend the town against an advancing Scottish force, in 1645, during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, Dundee was again besieged, this time by the Royalist Marquess of Montrose. The town was destroyed by Parliamentarian forces led by George Monck in 1651. The town played a role in the establishment of the Jacobite cause when John Graham of Claverhouse. The town was held by the Jacobites in the 1715–16 rising, many in Scotland, including many in Dundee, regarded him as the rightful king. The economy of mediaeval Dundee centred on the export of raw wool, expansion of the whaling industry was triggered by the second Bounty Act, introduced in 1750 to increase Britains maritime and naval skill base
24.
Aberdeen
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Nicknames include the Granite City, the Grey City and the Silver City with the Golden Sands. During the mid-18th to mid-20th centuries, Aberdeens buildings incorporated locally quarried grey granite, since the discovery of North Sea oil in the 1970s, other nicknames have been the Oil Capital of the World or the Energy Capital of the World. The area around Aberdeen has been settled since at least 8,000 years ago, the city has a long, sandy coastline and a marine climate, the latter resulting in chilly summers and mild winters. Aberdeen received Royal Burgh status from David I of Scotland, transforming the city economically, the traditional industries of fishing, paper-making, shipbuilding, and textiles have been overtaken by the oil industry and Aberdeens seaport. Aberdeen Heliport is one of the busiest commercial heliports in the world, in 2015, Mercer named Aberdeen the 57th most liveable city in the world, as well as the fourth most liveable city in Britain. In 2012, HSBC named Aberdeen as a business hub and one of eight super cities spearheading the UKs economy. The Aberdeen area has seen human settlement for at least 8,000 years. The city began as two separate burghs, Old Aberdeen at the mouth of the river Don, and New Aberdeen, a fishing and trading settlement, the earliest charter was granted by William the Lion in 1179 and confirmed the corporate rights granted by David I. In 1319, the Great Charter of Robert the Bruce transformed Aberdeen into a property-owning, granted with it was the nearby Forest of Stocket, whose income formed the basis for the citys Common Good Fund which still benefits Aberdonians. The city was burned by Edward III of England in 1336, but was rebuilt and extended, the city was strongly fortified to prevent attacks by neighbouring lords, but the gates were removed by 1770. During the Wars of the Three Kingdoms of 1644–1647 the city was plundered by both sides, in 1644, it was taken and ransacked by Royalist troops after the Battle of Aberdeen and two years later it was stormed by a Royalist force under the command of Marquis of Huntly. In 1647 an outbreak of plague killed a quarter of the population. In the 18th century, a new Town Hall was built and the first social services appeared with the Infirmary at Woolmanhill in 1742 and the Lunatic Asylum in 1779. The council began major road improvements at the end of the 18th century with the main thoroughfares of George Street, King Street, gas street lighting arrived in 1824 and an enhanced water supply appeared in 1830 when water was pumped from the Dee to a reservoir in Union Place. An underground sewer system replaced open sewers in 1865, the city was incorporated in 1891. Although Old Aberdeen has a history and still holds its ancient charter. It is an part of the city, as is Woodside. Old Aberdeen is the location of Aberdon, the first settlement of Aberdeen
25.
Highland Main Line
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The Highland Main Line is a railway line in Scotland. It is 118 mi long and runs through the Scottish Highlands linking a series of towns and villages with Perth at one end. Today, services between Inverness and Edinburgh, Glasgow and London use the line, at Inverness the line connects with the Far North Line, the Aberdeen-Inverness Line and services on the Kyle of Lochalsh Line. All trains are diesel-powered, since the line is not electrified, much of the Highland Main Line is single track, and trains coming in opposite directions are often timed to arrive at stations at the same time, where crossing loops permit them to pass. Journey times between Inverness and Edinburgh or Glasgow are approximately three and a half hours, originally, the line between Inverness and Perth went via Forres, but the Inverness and Aviemore Direct Railway was opened in 1898 to allow for a more direct routeing. There are two significant summits on the line, Drumochter Summit between Blair Atholl and Dalwhinnie, and Slochd Summit between Carrbridge and Inverness. As of 2004, there are stations on the line as follows, Services on the line are provided by Abellio ScotRail, a roughly two-hourly Abellio ScotRail service operates between Perth and Inverness throughout the day, with all services running from either Glasgow Queen Street or Edinburgh Waverley. The Virgin Trains East Coast service is titled The Highland Chieftain. Formed of a HST unit, it departs Inverness at around 8am and runs to London Kings Cross, via Perth, Stirling, Falkirk, Edinburgh, the return working leaves London at midday and reaches Inverness in the late evening. There is also the Caledonian Sleeper operated sleeping car service that travels overnight between Inverness and London Euston via Perth, Stirling, Edinburgh Waverley and the West Coast Main Line. This joins portions from Aberdeen and Fort William at Edinburgh Waverley, all trains between Perth and Inverness call at Pitlochry, Kingussie and Aviemore. Most ScotRail services call at Dunkeld and Birnam and at Blair Atholl, with the stations at Dalwhinnie, Newtonmore, on Sundays, a couple of services continue through to Elgin, calling at Nairn and Forres. Station usage at some stations remain stable, overall usage on the line comparing April 2003 to April 2010 has increased 154%. The Scottish government is seeking to upgrade the line, reducing journey times, route on OpenStreetMap Highland line on Transport Scotland
26.
Ayrshire Coast Line
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The Ayrshire Coast Line is one of the lines within the Strathclyde suburban rail network in Scotland. It has 26 stations and connects the Ayrshire coast to Glasgow, there are three branches, to Largs, Ardrossan Harbour and Ayr, all running into the high level at Glasgow Central. All trains call at Kilwinning and most trains call at Paisley Gilmour Street, the line to Ayr was electrified and Class 318 electric multiple units introduced by British Rail in September 1986. The full electrified service, including trains to Largs and Ardrossan Harbour and these were supplemented by occasional use of Class 303 and Class 311 EMUs, then in use on the Inverclyde Line. These EMUs replaced the Class 101 and Class 107 DMUs that had served the line for over 30 years, Class 126 DMUs were also used on the line, but they succumbed to old age in the early 1980s. For most of the day,6 trains per hour run between Glasgow Central and Kilwinning,4 go to Ayr whilst 2 service Largs and Ardrossan Harbour branches. Glasgow to Ayr trains which leave Glasgow at xx00 and xx30 between 0830 and 1830 and from Ayr leaving at xx23 and XX50 between 0850 and 1623 will run non stop between Kilwinning and Glasgow Central, after 1900, the service reduces to 4 trains per hour. All trains call at Paisley and Kilwinning with 2 trains going to Ayr while the other 2 serve Ardrossan, on a Sunday, a reduced service operates,3 trains per hour run with 2 going to Ayr and 1 going to Largs. 5 trains daily run to Ardrossan Harbour to meet the ferry to Brodick, on Sunday evening, it reduces to only 2 trains per hour with 1 to Ayr and Largs. Paisley, Kilwinning, Troon, Prestwick and Ayr are also served by the Glasgow South Western Line with trains running between Glasgow-Stranraer and Kilmarnock-Girvan/Stranraer, as of 2014, most services are run by Class 380s. Class 314s are, however, used on peak time services when 380s are in short supply. There are now 5 trains per day between Ayr and Edinburgh, in 2016, a Monday to Saturday service that runs between Ayr and North Berwick was introduced, running once a day at 1501. Here the line branches in two, with one branch running south along the coast to Troon and Ayr and this branch also serves Prestwick Airport station, which opened in 1994. The other branch runs north along the coast to Ardrossan or Largs and this part of the network is heavily used by freight traffic to carry coal from the Hunterston Terminal. Beyond Ayr, Sprinter DMUs continue south towards Girvan and Stranraer, the line connects at Troon with ferries to Larne, at Ardrossan to Brodick on the Isle of Arran, and at Largs to Great Cumbrae. The Rebirth of AyrLine, Electrification to Ayr/Ardrossan/Largs - 1986/1987, the Rebirth of AyrLine, Electrification to Ayr/Ardrossan/Largs -1987. The long wait is over for Ayrshire project
27.
Fife Circle Line
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The Fife Circle is the local rail service north from Edinburgh. It links towns of south Fife and the towns along the Firth of Forth before heading to Edinburgh. Operationally, the service is not strictly a circle route, but, rather, a point to point service that reverses at the Edinburgh end, the service includes the Edinburgh-Dunfermline stretch of the East Coast Main Line, which includes the world-famous Forth Bridge. Narrowly speaking, just this line could be called the Fife Circle, the current service is actually a combination of two previously separate local routes - Edinburgh to Kirkcaldy & Edinburgh to Cowdenbeath & Cardenden. All local stopping trains on the coast line meanwhile terminated at Kirkcaldy, there is a goods line connection from Dunfermline to Stirling via Longannet Power Station that rail campaigners would like to reopen to passengers, as it has already been between Stirling and Alloa. The line between Alloa and Dunfermline is not currently signalled to passenger carrying standards, the Fife Circle is a priority for present investment in new rolling stock. Its morning peak services can be notoriously overcrowded, a new station was built on the edge of Edinburgh called Edinburgh Gateway station and was opened in December 2016 to provide connections to the nearby Edinburgh Airport. All services are run by Abellio ScotRail, sundays see an hourly service in both directions around the full circle to Glenrothes. Some services regularly ran through to/from Newcraighall until 2015, but with the opening of the Borders Railway in September that year this routing ceased, Edinburgh Waverley is major station of the Scottish capital, under the castle rock and opening onto Princes Street and its gardens. Haymarket serves the city centres West End and Tollcross districts, South Gyle is located in the South Gyle residential suburb. It also serves the South Gyle industrial estate, the Gyle Shopping Centre, Edinburgh Gateway is located next to the Gogar roundabout and features an interchange with Edinburgh Trams that can be used to travel to Edinburgh Airport. Dalmeny is the station at the end of the Forth Bridge. It is at the edge of South Queensferry, North Queensferry is the village at the north end of the Forth Bridge. Inverkeithing is ancient burgh and port with a history of shipbreaking, here the main line and loop line divide. Rosyth serves the town well enough but is on its inland side nowhere near the port and it also serves the south of Dunfermline. Dunfermline Town serves the centre of Dunfermline, Dunfermline Queen Margaret serves Dunfermlines eastern suburbs and is near Queen Margaret hospital. Cowdenbeath, serves the town and the village of Kelty. Lochgelly serves the town and the Benarty coalfield villages, Cardenden serves all areas of the former mining town
28.
Glasgow South Western Line
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The Glasgow South Western Line is a mainline railway in Scotland that runs from Glasgow to Kilmarnock, and then either Carlisle via Dumfries, or Stranraer via Ayr, with a branch to East Kilbride. The lines forming the East Kilbride branch were operated by the Caledonian Railway, until 1923 the line via Dumfries was in competition with the North British Railway and Caledonian Railway as one of the mainlines into Scotland. With the passing of the Railways Act 1921 the line part of the London, Midland. In 1948, with nationalisation the line part of the Scottish Region of British Railways. The former G&SWR terminus at Glasgow St Enoch was also closed in this period, following completion of this project, the sections of line between Barrhead and Kilmarnock and Annan and Gretna were singled. Re-doubling of the Annan to Gretna section was completed in August 2008, the line is not electrified, with the exception of parts of the line around the approaches to Glasgow Central and the section of the line shared with the Ayrshire Coast Line. In early 2009, work commenced to re-double the line between Lugton and Stewarton based on the 2008 plans published by Network Rail, completed in September 2009, this allows ScotRail to run a half-hourly service to Kilmarnock. On 1 August 2015, a ballast train ran into the rear of another ballast train at Cumnock, all Scottish operations, including this line, became part of the Regional Railways operation - being branded as ScotRail. Following privatisation, passenger services upon the line were taken over by ScotRail, the Dumfries route remains one of only three railway lines between the Scottish border and lowland areas alongside the East Coast Main Line and West Coast Main Line. Between Glasgow Central and Gretna Green and Girvan the line is operated by the Scottish Train Operating Company - currently ScotRail, electric train services are also provided between Glasgow and Troon and Ayr via the Ayrshire Coast Line. Some services continue on from Carlisle to Newcastle, though the daily services between Newcastle and Stranraer via Kilmarnock that once ran over the route were withdrawn in December 2009. There are also a number of services between Glasgow & Stranraer that run direct via Paisley & Kilwinning. In the 1970s, most of the stations between Kilmarnock and Carlisle were closed, leaving only Kirkconnel, Dumfries and Annan. Since then, the stations at New Cumnock, Auchinleck, Sanquhar, there have been several studies recently as to the possibility of reopening Thornhill station, roughly halfway between Dumfries and Sanquhar. The Glasgow South Western Line links into the ferries at Stranraer via the bus connecting with Cairnryan for the Stena Line ferries to the Port of Belfast, the Stena Line ships ran from Stranraer Harbour until 2011. A bus connection to Cairnryan is also now provided from Ayr, onward rail connections are provided by Northern Ireland Railways. The line also connected Troon to the P&O Ferries service to Larne Harbour, the Directory of Railway Stations, details every public and private passenger station, halt, platform and stopping place, past and present. Jowetts Railway Atlas of Great Britain and Ireland, From Pre-Grouping to the Present Day, British Rail Track Diagams - Book 1, ScotRail
29.
Transport in Glasgow
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The city of Glasgow, Scotland has a transport system encompassing air, rail, road, and an underground rail line. Prior to 1962, the city was served by trams. This includes shuttle flights to and from London and the rest of the UK, transatlantic links to New York, Philadelphia and several Canadian cities in addition to Dubai. Glasgow Prestwick International Airport is located 29 miles south west of the city in South Ayrshire and caters mainly for flights, low-cost airlines. Glasgow Seaplane Terminal, located on the River Clyde, by Glasgow Science Centre in the city centre, there are also two small airfields in the nearby towns of Cumbernauld, and Strathaven, near East Kilbride. The city has two main railway stations. Queen Street Station, located on George Square which connects Glasgow to the North of Scotland, and Edinburgh. Glasgow Central station, located on Gordon Street is the terminus of the West Coast Main Line, and connects Glasgow with the South, and is the rail gateway to England. Regular express train services run from Central to London, terminating at either Euston or Kings Cross, there were two additional mainline stations serving the city at one stage. These two stations were removed in the 1960s as a result of the Beeching Axe, Plans were devised in the post-war period to redevelop Glasgow as a whole. As part of the resulting Bruce Report, it was proposed that Queen Street Station be demolished and replaced as a bus station and this plan was never followed through, and Queen Street operates to this day, although Buchanan Street Station closed in the 1960s. The chosen site for the Glasgow North Station is now occupied by the Buchanan Bus Station, the Buchanan Galleries shopping centre, the Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow and District Transport Plans from 1951 show the layout of the proposed station, available on, Hipkiss Scanned Old Maps. The Bruce Report also recommended the demolition of both Glasgow Central and St Enoch Stations and replacing them with a Glasgow South Station, but again this was never followed up. There is also a suburban rail system run by ScotRail to the specification and requirements of SPT. It is centred on Central Station for the City south of the Clyde, the Ayrshire coast, Queen Street Station is for links with Edinburgh and the east coast of Scotland and west to and north to the Highlands on the famous West Highland Line. The North Clyde Line runs from Helensburgh and Balloch in the west to Edinburgh, the rail based urban and suburban systems are run by Strathclyde Partnership for Transport. SPT is formed and financed out of the unitary authorities in the Greater Glasgow area including Glasgow City Council. It has responsibility for local services, the Subway, certain ferries and buses
30.
Urban rail in the United Kingdom
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Urban rail, commuter rail, regional rail, or suburban rail plays a key role in public transport in many of the United Kingdoms major cities. Urban rail is defined as a service between a central business district and suburbs or other locations that draw large numbers of people on a daily basis. The trains providing such services may be termed commuter trains, unlike light rail, urban rail is classed as heavy rail, operating on lines shared with other passenger and freight trains with networks often larger than those of light rail. The infrastructure in Great Britain is owned by Network Rail, in Northern Ireland NI Railways have responsibility for both the infrastructure and operations. As urban rail networks are part of the rail network. Cycles can be taken on board in the majority of cases, unlike most light rail systems, only one ticket needs to be bought if a journey includes both mainline and urban rail. Urban rail usually has higher capacity than light rail because of longer trains, a few urban railways offer service during peak times only, and others operate less frequent trains during the evenings and on Sundays. Networks often encompass a few stations in a large city. In Northern Irelands capital, Northern Ireland Railways Belfast Suburban Rail serves Greater Belfast, Belfast Suburban Rail serves 39 different stations on three lines. Co-ordinated and subsidised by Transport for West Midlands, London Midland operates a network of 63 stations in the West Midlands county focused on Birmingham, London Midland operate the West Midlands commuter routes as London Midland City to distinguish them from their longer-distance routes. The main city-centre station is Birmingham New Street, operated by Network Rail, the other main stations in the West Midlands are Wolverhampton and Coventry. During 2014/15, there were nearly 51 million rail passenger journeys in the TfWM area, Birmingham has the highest proportion of rail commuters in England outside London. Most of the Birmingham and West Midlands County local commuter lines are centred on New Street station, including the Cross-City Line, the Chase Line, three commuter routes, known collectively as the Snow Hill Lines run through Snow Hill and Moor Street stations. Services run at ten-minute frequencies on the busiest routes, with most other operating at least a 15-20 or 30 minute frequency. Services are run as below, Birmingham Loop - Wolverhampton - Birmingham New Street - Birmingham International - Coventry, Cross-City Line - Lichfield Trent Valley – Birmingham New Street – Longbridge – Redditch. Chase Line - Birmingham New Street - Walsall - Rugeley Trent Valley, Snow Hill Lines - Worcester – Kidderminster – Stourbridge – Birmingham Snow Hill – Birmingham Moor Street – Solihull – Dorridge – Leamington Spa / Whitlocks End – Stratford upon Avon. Lines to Wolverhampton and Coventry operate from outside the TfWM-supported area, most notably on the Wolverhampton to Shrewsbury Line, restoration of local passenger services to the freight only Walsall to Wolverhampton Line, is also being pursued. Centro was created in 1969 following the Transport Act 1968, the Transport Act 1985 deregulated and privatised bus services across the UK
31.
Glasgow
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Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland, and third largest in the United Kingdom. Historically part of Lanarkshire, it is now one of the 32 council areas of Scotland and it is situated on the River Clyde in the countrys West Central Lowlands. Inhabitants of the city are referred to as Glaswegians, Glasgow grew from a small rural settlement on the River Clyde to become the largest seaport in Britain. From the 18th century the city grew as one of Great Britains main hubs of transatlantic trade with North America. Glasgow was the Second City of the British Empire for much of the Victorian era and Edwardian period, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries Glasgow grew in population, reaching a peak of 1,128,473 in 1939. The entire region surrounding the conurbation covers about 2.3 million people, at the 2011 census, Glasgow had a population density of 8, 790/sq mi, the highest of any Scottish city. Glasgow hosted the 2014 Commonwealth Games and is well known in the sporting world for the football rivalry of the Old Firm between Celtic and Rangers. Glasgow is also known for Glasgow patter, a dialect that is noted for being difficult to understand by those from outside the city. Glasgow is the form of the ancient Cumbric name Glas Cau. Possibly referring to the area of Molendinar Burn where Glasgow Cathedral now stands, the later Gaelic name Baile Glas Chu, town of the grey dog, is purely a folk-etymology. The present site of Glasgow has been settled since prehistoric times, it is for settlement, being the furthest downstream fording point of the River Clyde, the origins of Glasgow as an established city derive ultimately from its medieval position as Scotlands second largest bishopric. Glasgow increased in importance during the 10th and 11th centuries as the site of this bishopric, reorganised by King David I of Scotland and John, there had been an earlier religious site established by Saint Mungo in the 6th century. The bishopric became one of the largest and wealthiest in the Kingdom of Scotland, bringing wealth, sometime between 1189 and 1195 this status was supplemented by an annual fair, which survives as the Glasgow Fair. Glasgow grew over the following centuries, the first bridge over the River Clyde at Glasgow was recorded from around 1285, giving its name to the Briggait area of the city, forming the main North-South route over the river via Glasgow Cross. The founding of the University of Glasgow in 1451 and elevation of the bishopric to become the Archdiocese of Glasgow in 1492 increased the towns religious and educational status and landed wealth. Its early trade was in agriculture, brewing and fishing, with cured salmon and herring being exported to Europe, Glasgow was subsequently raised to the status of Royal Burgh in 1611. The citys Tobacco Lords created a water port at Port Glasgow on the Firth of Clyde. By the late 18th century more than half of the British tobacco trade was concentrated on Glasgows River Clyde, at the time, Glasgow held a commercial importance as the city participated in the trade of sugar, tobacco and later cotton
32.
London
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London /ˈlʌndən/ is the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south east of the island of Great Britain and it was founded by the Romans, who named it Londinium. Londons ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its 1. 12-square-mile medieval boundaries. London is a global city in the arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, professional services, research and development, tourism. It is crowned as the worlds largest financial centre and has the fifth- or sixth-largest metropolitan area GDP in the world, London is a world cultural capital. It is the worlds most-visited city as measured by international arrivals and has the worlds largest city airport system measured by passenger traffic, London is the worlds leading investment destination, hosting more international retailers and ultra high-net-worth individuals than any other city. Londons universities form the largest concentration of education institutes in Europe. In 2012, London became the first city to have hosted the modern Summer Olympic Games three times, London has a diverse range of people and cultures, and more than 300 languages are spoken in the region. Its estimated mid-2015 municipal population was 8,673,713, the largest of any city in the European Union, Londons urban area is the second most populous in the EU, after Paris, with 9,787,426 inhabitants at the 2011 census. The citys metropolitan area is the most populous in the EU with 13,879,757 inhabitants, the city-region therefore has a similar land area and population to that of the New York metropolitan area. London was the worlds most populous city from around 1831 to 1925, Other famous landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Pauls Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square, and The Shard. The London Underground is the oldest underground railway network in the world, the etymology of London is uncertain. It is an ancient name, found in sources from the 2nd century and it is recorded c.121 as Londinium, which points to Romano-British origin, and hand-written Roman tablets recovered in the city originating from AD 65/70-80 include the word Londinio. The earliest attempted explanation, now disregarded, is attributed to Geoffrey of Monmouth in Historia Regum Britanniae and this had it that the name originated from a supposed King Lud, who had allegedly taken over the city and named it Kaerlud. From 1898, it was accepted that the name was of Celtic origin and meant place belonging to a man called *Londinos. The ultimate difficulty lies in reconciling the Latin form Londinium with the modern Welsh Llundain, which should demand a form *lōndinion, from earlier *loundiniom. The possibility cannot be ruled out that the Welsh name was borrowed back in from English at a later date, and thus cannot be used as a basis from which to reconstruct the original name. Until 1889, the name London officially applied only to the City of London, two recent discoveries indicate probable very early settlements near the Thames in the London area
33.
Railway electrification in Great Britain
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Railway electrification in Great Britain began during the late 19th century. In 2006, 40%—3,062 miles of the British rail network was electrified, according to Network Rail, 64% of the electrified network uses the 25 kV AC overhead system, and 36% uses the 660/750 V DC third-rail system. The first electric railway in Great Britain was Volks Electric Railway in Brighton which opened in 1883, the London Underground began operating electric services using a fourth rail system in 1890 on the City and South London Railway, now part of the Northern line. Main line electrification of suburban lines began in the early years of the 20th century. In 1921 a government committee chose 1,500 V DC overhead to be the national standard, during the interwar period, the Southern Railway adopted the 660 V DC third rail system as its standard and greatly expanded this system across its network of lines south of London. After World War II and the nationalisation of the railways in 1948, in 1956, BR adopted 25 kV AC overhead as standard for all projects outside logical extensions of third-rail systems. The 25 kV AC network has continued to slowly. In May 2009, Network Rail launched a consultation on large-scale electrification, potentially to include the Great Western Main Line and Midland Main Line, key benefits cited were that electric trains are faster, more reliable and cause less track wear than diesel trains. Since then, electrification of the Great Western Main Line has been approved, electric trains are planned to run to Bristol from 2016, Electrification of the Midland Main Line, several Trans-Pennine routes and the Welsh Valleys has also been approved. In Scotland, where transport is devolved to the Scottish Government, Transport Scotland is extending electrification, for example and this is part of a larger plan that sees many major routes in central Scotland electrified, including the main Edinburgh Waverley – Glasgow Queen Street route. In June 2011, Peter Dearman of Network Rail suggested that the network will need to be converted into overhead lines. He stated, Although the top speed is 100 mph, the trains cannot go over 80 mph well, agreeing that conversion would be expensive, he said that the third rail network is at the limit of its power capability, especially as trains become more advanced in technology. This conversion is a scheme to develop a business case for full conversion of the third rail network. The ORR has also stated that on safety grounds, third rail 750V DC has a limited future, British Railways chose this as the national standard for future electrification projects outside of the third rail area in 1956. Following this, a number of lines that were electrified at a different voltage were converted. Work started in the late 1950s, the first major electrification project using 25 kV was the West Coast Main Line. Liverpool Lime Street including newly electrified routes to Manchester via Newton-le-Willows, Manchester, see Stafford to Manchester Line and Crewe to Manchester Line. Glasgow Central, in 1974, from Weaver Junction using Mark 3A series The Abbey Flyer was electrified 1987-88 by Network SouthEast, Edinburgh Waverley in 1989 In 2003, the Crewe to Kidsgrove section of the Crewe to Derby Line was electrified as a diversionary route for the WCML
34.
Train station
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A train station, railway station, railroad station, or depot is a railway facility where trains regularly stop to load or unload passengers or freight. It generally consists of at least one platform and a station building providing such ancillary services as ticket sales. If a station is on a line, it often has a passing loop to facilitate traffic movements. The smallest stations are most often referred to as stops or, in parts of the world. Stations may be at level, underground, or elevated. Connections may be available to intersecting rail lines or other modes such as buses. In British usage, the station is commonly understood to mean a railway station unless otherwise qualified. In the United States, the most common term in contemporary usage is train station, Railway station and railroad station are less frequent. Outside North America, a depot is place where buses, trains, or other vehicles are housed and maintained and from which they are dispatched for service. The two-storey Mount Clare station in Baltimore, Maryland, which survives as a museum, first saw service as the terminus of the horse-drawn Baltimore. The oldest terminal station in the world was Crown Street railway station in Liverpool, built in 1830, as the first train on the Liverpool-Manchester line left Liverpool, the station is slightly older than the Manchester terminal at Liverpool Road. The station was the first to incorporate a train shed, the station was demolished in 1836 as the Liverpool terminal station moved to Lime Street railway station. Crown Street station was converted to a goods station terminal, the first stations had little in the way of buildings or amenities. The first stations in the modern sense were on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, manchesters Liverpool Road Station, the second oldest terminal station in the world, is preserved as part of the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester. It resembles a row of Georgian houses, dual-purpose stations can sometimes still be found today, though in many cases goods facilities are restricted to major stations. In rural and remote communities across Canada and the United States, such stations were known as flag stops or flag stations. Many stations date from the 19th century and reflect the architecture of the time. Countries where railways arrived later may still have such architecture, as later stations often imitated 19th-century styles, various forms of architecture have been used in the construction of stations, from those boasting grand, intricate, Baroque- or Gothic-style edifices, to plainer utilitarian or modernist styles
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Glasgow Central station
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Glasgow Central is the major mainline rail terminus in Glasgow, Scotland. The station was opened by the Caledonian Railway on 1 August 1879 and is one of nineteen managed by Network Rail and it is the northern terminus of the West Coast Main Line, and for inter-city services between Glasgow and England. The other main railway station in Glasgow is Glasgow Queen Street. With over 30 million passengers in 2015-16, Glasgow Central is the twelfth-busiest railway station in Britain, according to Network Rail, over 38 million people use it annually, 80% of whom are passengers. The station is protected as a category A listed building, the station was built over the site of Grahamston village, whose central street was demolished to make way for the station platform. In 1890, a solution of widening the bridge over Argyle Street. It was also intended to increase Bridge Street station to eight through lines. The Glasgow Central Railway was taken over by the Caledonian Railway in 1890, by 1900 the station was again found to be too small, passenger numbers per annum on the high-level station having increased by 5.156 million since the first extension was completed in 1890. Passenger usage per annum in 1899 was 16.841 million on the station and 6.416 million on the low-level station. The station is on two levels, the High-Level station at the level as Gordon Street, which bridges over Argyle Street. Between 1901 and 1905 the original station was rebuilt, the station was extended over the top of Argyle Street, and thirteen platforms were built. An additional eight-track bridge, the Caledonian Railway Bridge, was built over the Clyde, Bridge Street station was then closed. Also during the 1901–1905 rebuild a series of sidings was created at the end of Platforms 11 and 12 on the bridge over the River Clyde and these were named West Bank Siding, Mid Bank Siding and East Bank Siding. A dock siding – No.14 Dock was created at the end of Platform 13. Central Station has a spacious concourse containing shops, catering outlets, ticket offices and it is fronted by the Central Hotel on Gordon Street, designed by Robert Rowand Anderson. The station building houses a long line of shops and bars down the Union Street side. The undercroft of the station is not open to the public, it houses private car-parking. Underneath the Umbrella is an array of shops and bars, as well as the Arches nightclub, theatre, gallery
36.
Glasgow Queen Street railway station
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Glasgow Queen Street is a city centre railway terminal in Glasgow, Scotland. It is the smaller of the two main line railway termini and the third busiest station in Scotland. The station is situated between George Street to the south and Cathedral Street Bridge to the north, at the end of Queen Street adjacent to George Square. The other main station in Glasgow being Glasgow Central. The station was built by the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway, in 1865 the E&GR was absorbed into the North British Railway, in 1878 the entire station was redesigned by the civil engineer James Carswell. It became part of the LNER group in 1923, in 1928 there was a railway accident causing 3 fatalities when a train leaving the station slipped to a standstill and rolled back into another train. Modern diesel trains have no difficulty with the climb and this caused difficulties with longer trains, as Queen Street is in a confined position between George Square and the tunnel. In the 1980s, HST were used on Cross Country and East Coast services ran by InterCity, Queen Street stations platforms are on two levels, with the High Level platforms running directly north-south, and the Low Level running east-west. They are connected by staircases at either end of the Low Level platforms,3 trains per hour to Stirling 1 train per hour to Aberdeen via Perth and Dundee. 1 train per hour to Dundee, the high level railway approaches the station building through the Queen Street Tunnel, which runs beneath the Buchanan Galleries shopping centre to the Sighthill area northeast of the city centre. Platforms 1–7 occupy the High Level, Platform 1 being at the end of the trainshed. Platforms 8 and 9 comprise the Low Level station, and it is the most central stop on the North Clyde Line of the Glasgow suburban electric network. Trains run frequently between Helensburgh, Balloch and Milngavie on the Firth of Clyde, towards Airdrie, on the edge of the Greater Glasgow and onward to Edinburgh via Bathgate, the line is electrified, the fleet operating this route are Class 318s, Class 320s and Class 334s. Services on the West Highland Line to Oban, Fort William, the Low Level line between High Street, Queen Street and Charing Cross was built before the Glasgow Subway, making it the oldest underground railway in the city. In May–June 2014, work was carried out to redevelop the Low Level platforms, Queen Street signal box, opened in 1881, was on a gantry spanning the tracks close to the tunnel mouth. It closed on 26 February 1967 when control of the high level station was transferred to a panel in Cowlairs signal box and that box was superseded by the new Cowlairs signalling centre on 28 December 1998. This in turn was abolished in October 2013 and the station is now under the supervision of Edinburgh IECC, the low level station had two signal boxes, Queen Street West and Queen Street East. Both boxes were over the tracks and closed on 8 February 1960, the low level lines came under the control of Yoker Signalling Centre on 19 November 1989
37.
Argyle Line
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The Argyle Line is a suburban railway located in West Central Scotland. It connects the Lanarkshire towns of Lanark, Larkhall and Motherwell to West Dunbartonshire via central Glasgow using sub-surface running and it takes its name from Glasgows Argyle Street, under which a significant section of the line runs via a cut-and-cover tunnel. The line was developed by Strathclyde Passenger Transport Executive and British Rail, the term Argyle Line is loosely used in two contexts, to describe an urban passenger train service, and to describe a length of railway infrastructure. The train service extends considerably beyond the Argyle Line infrastructure, connecting the areas of North Clydeside with Motherwell, Larkhall. I. e. a train from Blantyre continues via Whifflet, there is one intermediate siding at Exhibition Centre, used to for turning back westbound trains. The stations are of island or two-platform design, the route serves the commercial and shopping districts of Glasgows central area. The south-eastern extremity of the service is the two-platform station at Lanark. Passing through Motherwell, the trains leave the West Coast Main Line again to call at Bellshill before rejoining the main line at Uddingston. The Hamilton Circle line converges at Newton, trains approaching Motherwell from Holytown or Coatbridge Central, cross the WCML to travel onto the Hamilton Circle, before calling at Airbles. Between here and Hamilton Central, a spur from Larkhall joins, the line then passes through Hamilton West, Blantyre and Newton before rejoining the West Coast Main Line as far as Rutherglen. At Dalmarnock Junction, trains diverge northwards to enter the infrastructure of the Argyle Line, West of Exhibition Centre Station, the line to Partick and Hyndland, diverges to form a burrowing junction. Westbound trains rise up an incline to join the North Clyde line from Queen Street station. This steep section originally gave access to the sidings at Queens Dock from the Stobcross Railway, Eastbound trains enter what is now known as Kelvinhaugh Tunnel, immediately to the West of Sandyford Street. The mouth of the Stobcross Depot Tunnel can be seen from the Eastbound platform of Exhibition Centre Station, going North-westwards, Partick is the fifth busiest in Scotland. Trains then either travel towards Dalmuir via Yoker, or go via Anniesland to Milngavie or Dalmuir and on Sundays, for a few years from the re-opening, the northbound West Highland sleeping car train from London Euston used the route on Saturdays only. It was detached from another portion at Mossend and diesel-hauled via the Rutherglen & Coatbridge line, at its opening, the rolling stock on the Argyle Line was Class 314 electric multiple units, which were then new. These were accompanied by a number of the older Class 303 Blue Train sets from the North Clyde route, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Class 311 trains also operated on this route. The Argyle Line is operated by Class 320s and Class 318s with the occasional Class 334 appearing, in November 1979, the Argyle Line was created, as joint venture by British Rail and the Strathclyde Passenger Transport Executive, by reopening most of the former route
38.
Cathcart Circle Lines
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The Cathcart Circle Lines form a suburban railway route linking Glasgow to Cathcart via a circular line, with branches to Newton and Neilston, on the south bank of the River Clyde. They are part of the Strathclyde Partnership for Transport network, the lines were built by the Cathcart District Railway and the Lanarkshire and Ayrshire Railway. The first part opened on 1 March 1886 as a line from Glasgow Central to Mount Florida then single to Cathcart. The circular route back to Central station via Shawlands and Maxwell Park was completed on 2 April 1894, the Newton and Neilston branches were built to provide a through route from the Lanarkshire coalfields to ports such as Ardrossan on the Ayrshire coast. There is still a junction with lines at Newton. The lines originally carried significant amounts of freight, but commuter trains are the regular users now. Football specials sometimes run to Mount Florida and Kings Park for major matches at Hampden Park, when the lines were built much of the land around them was open countryside. The lines under British Railways were electrified on Monday 28 May 1962 at the standard 25 kV AC, the Blue Trains, Class 303 units, which had dual voltage capability, replaced steam trains and early diesel units. There was a run on the previous day. And over 5,500 passengers were reported as using the new trains in their first morning rush hour, the lines comprise the following lines, Built by the Cathcart District Railway. Built by the Lanarkshire and Ayrshire Railway, diverges from the Circle via a dive under junction south of Mount Florida and at Cathcart South Junction. The link at Cathcart South junction was put in place during electrification, diverges from the Circle at Cathcart. Round the west side of the Circle onto the L&AR lines eastbound, East side services ran to Newton, with many extended to Motherwell via the Clydesdale Junction Railway. The basic service every 30 minutes was Glasgow Central to Neilston via Mount Florida, Central to Motherwell via Mount Florida, Glasgow Central to Kirkhill via Maxwell Park and this included the Hamilton Circle and resulted in east side services terminating at Newton. Peak services from east and west sides operated to Motherwell via Blantyre, the major change being the extension of west side services from Kirkhill to Newton. Until May 1984 there were four trains an hour on the Newton branch, from May 1984, both the Newton and Neilston services remained 2 per hour, none turned back at Kirkhill and only one ran the full circle each way. Services were operated by First ScotRail, with most services using Class 314 electric multiple units, although Class 318s and these service levels are less than those of the 1960s. At peak times the above combine to have trains running approximately every 5–10 minutes between Glasgow Central and Cathcart, where line capacity permits
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Cumbernauld Line
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The Cumbernauld Line is a suburban railway line linking Glasgow to Falkirk via Cumbernauld in Scotland. Since May 2014, the electrified track between Springburn and Cumbernauld has become an extension of the North Clyde network. All passenger services on this Line are operated by Abellio ScotRail, following electrification between June 2013 and May 2014, Cumbernauld services have become an extension of the North Clyde Lines Springburn Branch. This now means that services from Cumbernauld now arrive at Glasgow Queen Street Low Level platforms, due to cancellation of the Garngad Chord, trains must reverse from Springburn. Upon completion of the Edinburgh to Glasgow Improvement Programme, a series of Diversionary Route electrification projects have been outlined for completion in 2018 and these plans include full electrification between Cumbernauld and Falkirk Grahamston. With the cancellation of the Garngad Chord in November 2011, the potential to remove the timely reversing procedure at Springburn is still an option, there are also tentative plans to extend passenger services from Falkirk to Grangemouth, a town which lost its train service in January 1968. This is an idea put forward by Network Rail to improve access and is support by Falkirk Council
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Inverclyde Line
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The line has been in operation since the 1840s between Glasgow and Greenock and was the first passenger service to follow the River Clyde to the coast. The line was electrified in 1967, for the first time a railway took passengers right down the River Clyde, taking about one hour where Clyde steamers took around twice as long. On 9 July 1847 the railway merged with the Caledonian Railway, in August 1893 the Greenock and Wemyss Bay Railway amalgamated with the Caledonian Railway. In the 1923 grouping, the became part of the London, Midland. The line was electrified in 1967, seven years after the North Clyde Lines, the electric Class 311 trains were specially built for the line in 1967, although Class 303 trains were also used. In 2016 the line is operated by Class 314s and Class 380s. From Paisley, the heads to Port Glasgow station, after which it branches. The main route heads through Greenock to Gourock, where it connects with services to Dunoon. This changes in the evenings, and after 8pm only two trains an hour run to Gourock, with the Wemyss Bay train stopping at all stations, the Glasgow Airport Rail Link to Glasgow Airport would have branched off from the Inverclyde Line near Paisley St. James station. In December 2006, the Scottish Executive gave the final go-ahead for the new link to be constructed, however the project was subsequently cancelled in September 2009
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Maryhill Line
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The Maryhill Line is a suburban railway line linking Glasgow and Anniesland via Maryhill in Scotland. It is part of the Strathclyde Partnership for Transport network, the line between Glasgow and Maryhill forms a part of the West Highland Line and was reopened to stopping passenger services in 1993. The line was reopened by British Rail and Strathclyde Passenger Transport Executive, local services over the route had previously ended in the early 1960s, though it remained open thereafter for Fort William/Mallaig & Oban trains and freight traffic. In 2005 it was extended to Anniesland via a new station at Kelvindale in the north west of the city, prior to 2005, trains terminating at Maryhill had to proceed empty to Knightswood North Junction to reverse and change lines before returning to Glasgow. The line is not electrified, though there have been calls from various bodies, Passenger services are operated by Abellio ScotRail using Class 156, Class 158 and Class 170 diesel multiple units. There has been a Sunday service on the line since 17 May 2014
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North Clyde Line
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The North Clyde Line is a suburban railway in West Central Scotland. The route is operated by Abellio ScotRail, as a result of the incorporation of the Airdrie-Bathgate Rail Link and the Edinburgh to Bathgate Line, this route is the fourth rail link between Glasgow and Edinburgh. Fifty years later, in 2010, the line was extended by Network Rail east from Airdrie, the main core of the route runs from Edinburgh Waverley to Helensburgh Central via Bathgate and Glasgow Queen Street. To the east of the city centre, there is a branch to Springburn. The lines from Partick to Dalmuir and Milngavie are also used by Argyle Line services, in the east, the line between Newbridge Junction and Edinburgh Waverley is shared with the Glasgow to Edinburgh via Falkirk Line and the Edinburgh to Dunblane Line. Some sections of the North Clyde Line are also traversed by freight trains, the line runs through central Glasgow, and the principal station on the line is Glasgow Queen Street. The section through the city centre runs in tunnels between High Street and the former Finnieston station. This is the oldest stretch of railway in Glasgow, opened as the Glasgow City & District Railway in 1886. Like most of Glasgows suburban railways, the North Clyde Lines as they are today were built piecemeal from a patchwork of routes from various Victorian-era railway companies. Following nationalisation in 1948, all of the lines came under the ownership of British Railways, a number of former LNER branch lines which fed into the North Clyde system were closed during the 1950s because they duplicated former LMS lines. Other lines closed due to lack of traffic, or later because they were not selected for inclusion in the electrification project. After ceremony on Saturday 5 November 1960, a public service of electric trains ran on Sunday. As insulation technology improved these lines were converted to 25 kV. In October 2010, the line between Bathgate and Airdrie opened complete with electrification at 25 kV for crew training and charter trains, the section between Bathgate and Haymarket was also electrified at 25 kV. This work was carried out as part of the Airdrie-Bathgate Rail Link, the former Caledonian Railway lines in north-west Glasgow and Dunbartonshire closed to passengers and then freight. However, the section from Rutherglen through Glasgow Central was reopened as the Argyle Line in 1979, a new flying junction was built east of Partick to connect the Argyle Line with the North Clyde Line. On 17 December 1979, Partickhill station was replaced by the new Partick slightly to the south, pleasure steamer operations on Loch Lomond ceased in the 1980s, leading to the closure of Balloch Pier terminus station on 28 September 1986. The catenary from the section to Balloch Pier was then used to reopen the line east of Airdrie to a new terminus at Drumgelloch in May 1989
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Paisley Canal line
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The Paisley Canal Railway line was originally a Glasgow and South Western Railway branch line running from Glasgow, Scotland, through three stations in Paisley, to North Johnstone. The line is electrified at 25 kV AC, in 1806 he obtained Parliamentary authority to construct the Glasgow, Paisley and Ardrossan Canal. He hoped that other businessmen would subscribe to his scheme, work started at the Glasgow end, but the canal only reached Johnstone, by which time all of the money had been spent, and debts of £71,209 had been accumulated. As part of a reconstruction, the canals name was changed to the Glasgow, Paisley. The G&SWR undertook to keep the open and operational. At that time there was extreme sensitivity among shareholders over what some saw as the Directors whimsical and expensive schemes, and the Chairman had to deny the claim. That had not entered into the minds of any of the directors, nor was it thought of in the most remote manner, till they saw it in the newspaper. This lack of sovereignty was difficult enough in the politics of the time. At that time goods traffic was heavy and slow, and line capacity and reliability were heavily compromised. In the 1881 Parliamentary session, a Bill was lodged by the G&SWR to drain the Canal and convert it to a railway, the canal had been built as a contour line, following exactly a particular altitude, this avoided locks at the expense of a circuitous route. Many of the loops taken by the course of the canal were eased in the construction by the use of earthworks. Goods trains started running on the line in March 1885, as well as local trains, some long distance expresses used the route, the best time from St Enoch to Paisley Canal was 17 minutes, compared with 16 minutes to Gilmour Street on the Joint Line. The following year the Potterhill branch of the Canal Line opened, on 5 February 1886, eight westbound and seven eastbound stopping trains ran on the Canal Line daily, of which five were extended to or from Potterhill, the others ran through to Johnstone. There was a junction for the Potterhill line. The availability of land at these locations rendered the schemes much more economical, as the CGUR was controlled by the G&SWR, G&SWR passenger trains from St Enoch, and goods trains from College, could reach Ayr without the necessity of entering on any part of the Joint Line. Despite the easing of the worst curvature, the new Canal Line was unsuited to fast running due to the alignment, a loop in the canal was used to hold cooling water for the cotton thread mills at Ferguslie. At Elderslie Junction it ran alongside the Glasgow and South Western Railway line running from Paisley Gilmour Street station to Johnstone and beyond, the line terminated at a station at North Johnstone, however another junction near Elderslie provided access onto the Bridge of Weir Railway. This is not the G&SWR Johnstone North railway station on the Dalry and North Johnstone Line, entries in italic were not passenger stations
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