Carluke railway station

Coordinates: 55°43′52″N 3°50′56″W / 55.73115°N 3.8489°W / 55.73115; -3.8489
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Carluke

Scottish Gaelic: Cair MoLuaig[1]
National Rail
Carluke railway station in 2020
General information
LocationCarluke, South Lanarkshire
Scotland
Coordinates55°43′52″N 3°50′56″W / 55.73115°N 3.8489°W / 55.73115; -3.8489
Grid referenceNS839501
Managed byScotRail
Transit authoritySPT
Platforms2
Other information
Station codeCLU
History
Original companyWishaw and Coltness Railway
Pre-groupingCaledonian Railway
Post-groupingLondon, Midland and Scottish Railway
Key dates
15 February 1848 (1848-02-15)Station opened
Passengers
2018/19Decrease 0.405 million
2019/20Decrease 0.400 million
2020/21Decrease 35,624
2021/22Increase 0.154 million
2022/23Increase 0.231 million
Notes
Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road
Express approaching Carluke in 1961

Carluke railway station is a railway station on the West Coast Main Line (WCML) that serves the town of Carluke, South Lanarkshire, Scotland. The station is managed by ScotRail and is predominantly served by Argyle Line commuter trains running between Lanark and Glasgow Central. The station lies at the western edge of the town, and enjoys panoramic views of the Clyde Valley and beyond to the hills of Lanarkshire and Ayrshire.

History

The first station to be named Carluke was a separate station near Bogside Farm. This station was opened as Carluke and Lanark on 8 May 1843 by the

Scottish Executive and were subsequently passed to Transport Scotland
upon its creation on 1 January 2006. Consequently, both the station and the rail services which call thereat are today operated by ScotRail.

Facilities

The station currently has two platforms connected by a stairway footbridge. Step-free access is available to both platforms, and a ramp is available for wheelchair users wishing to board or alight at the station. However, prior notice is required to ensure staff are on hand to assist.

The station building is located on Platform 2 and has level access from both the station car park and the platform itself. Inside is found a small heated waiting area and a ticket office which is staffed part-time (Monday-Friday 06:30-13:44, Saturday 06:20-13:44).

LCD
customer information screens.

The station's own car park is limited to 25 spaces.

SPT, with both parties contributing £1 million towards the cost of the project.[9]

Services

Historically

For many years under BR, Carluke was served by an hourly service from

Glasgow Central (High Level) (Sundays excepted), operating alternately via Wishaw, Holytown, Motherwell and Hamilton Central or by the more direct route via Wishaw, Motherwell, Bellshill and Uddingston
.

In the 1960s, these services were typically provided by

Partick and the introduction of the brand new BREL Class 314
EMUs in November 1979. This afforded the opportunity to route services through central Glasgow to destinations north of the River Clyde, and thus initially an hourly service operated from Lanark to Milngavie from Monday to Saturday which ran limited stop between Motherwell and Glasgow. However, the intermediate calls via Bellshill were soon reinstated, and with the exception of the introduction of several additional weekday peak expresses, this pattern persisted with few alterations until the introduction of a seven-day service in 1997.

In 2003, Monday to Saturday services were supplemented with a second train per hour. This saw the existing services diverted to Dalmuir, and the new service travelling to Milngavie, via Holytown, Hamilton Central and Glasgow Central.

The arrival of the

Juniper EMUs to the SPT fleet in 2002 allowed the last of the elderly Class 303s to be withdrawn and the Class 314s to be cascaded to services on the Cathcart Circle and Inverclyde Lines. For a number of years, Argyle Line services were consequently operated by a combination of Class 334s and BREL Class 318s displaced from services on the Ayrshire Coast Line. However, the Class 334s have mostly been transferred from December 2010 to operate services on the Airdrie–Bathgate rail link
, with only occasional services being rostered for these units.

The station had some other sporadic passenger services such as two trains a day to/from Carstairs and two to/from North Berwick via Edinburgh Waverley.

2013-14

Monday to Saturday
Daytime
  • 1tph - Lanark to Dalmuir, via Bellshill, Glasgow Central and Yoker
  • 1tph - Lanark to Milngavie, via Hamilton and Glasgow Central
Evening
  • 1tph - Lanark to Partick, via Bellshill and Glasgow Central
  • 1tph - Lanark to Milngavie, via Hamilton and Glasgow Central
All Day
  • 6tpd - North Berwick/Newcraighall/Edinburgh to Motherwell/Glasgow Central/Ayr
  • Saturdays Excepted, there are also several peak-hour limited stop services, towards Glasgow in the morning, and towards Lanark in the evening. These limited stop services normally only call at Wishaw, Shieldmuir and Motherwell before running non-stop to Glasgow
Sunday
  • 1tph - Lanark - Milngavie, via Bellshill and Glasgow Central

As part of the £1billion Edinburgh - Glasgow Improvement Project, the Scottish Government intended to introduce an hourly semi-fast service between Glasgow Central and Edinburgh Waverley via Carstairs from December 2013. These proposals would effectively operate as an extension of the existing service from Edinburgh Waverley to North Berwick, with services making intermediate calls at Motherwell, Wishaw, Carluke, Carstairs and Haymarket en route between Glasgow and Edinburgh, providing a journey time of around 65 minutes between Glasgow and Edinburgh.

The service began operating at the December 2013 timetable change, but only on sporadic approximately two-hourly frequency at present.[10] The paths in the opposite hour are taken up by CrossCountry services to/from the southwest of England via Birmingham, Leeds and Newcastle.

In May 2014, the majority of these new services were extended to serve Ayr on the West Coast.

December 2014

Following a timetable recast in the wake of electrification of the Whifflet Line, the service has been altered once more - Lanark trains now run on their old (pre-1979) route to Central High Level via Shieldmuir and Bellshill every half hour (hourly on Sundays).[11] Passengers wishing to travel to Argyle Line destinations must change at Cambuslang (except for a limited number of weekday peak direct trains) and there is no longer a direct service via Holytown (save for a single weekday morning peak train from Carstairs to Dalmuir).

Services are currently provided by Class 318, 320, 380, 334 and 156 units.

West Coast Main Line operations

Due to its location on the WCML, the station sees a considerable number of cross-border inter-city passenger services operated by

Manchester Airport, Birmingham New Street, London Euston, London King's Cross and Penzance. The Glasgow portion of the Lowland Sleeper
also passes through the station, but none of these services call at Carluke.

The WCML is also an important route for cross-border

Daventry International Railfreight Terminal at Crick, Northamptonshire, and a variety of DB Cargo UK freight services from Mossend to destinations such as Hams Hall, Eastleigh, Portbury Docks and Wembley, from where onward connections to mainland Europe are available by way of the Channel Tunnel. Freightliner also run regular coal trains from the nearby Scottish Coal railhead at Ravenstruther to Longannet, and DB Cargo UK operate mail trains to Warrington and Willesden from the Royal Mail
Scottish Distribution Centre at Shieldmuir.

The station in 2009 was used in the Virgin Trains 'Success Express' advert.

Preceding station National Rail National Rail Following station
Lanark   ScotRail
Argyle Line
  Wishaw
Carstairs   ScotRail
Argyle Line
 


  Historical railways  
Braidwood   Caledonian Railway
Main Line
  Law Junction

References

  1. ^ Brailsford 2017, Gaelic/English Station Index.
  2. OCLC 931112387
    .
  3. ^ R V J Butt 1995
  4. ^ J R Hume 1976
  5. ^ National Rail Enquiries - Station facilities for Carluke
  6. ^ Train station facilities - ScotRail Archived 9 September 2010 at the Wayback Machine
  7. ^ "National Rail Enquiries - Station facilities for Carluke".
  8. ^ "National Rail Enquiries - Station facilities for Carluke". www.nationalrail.co.uk. Retrieved 28 July 2021.
  9. ^ "Carluke Park and Ride officially opens". www.spt.co.uk. Archived from the original on 20 May 2010.
  10. ^ GB National Rail Timetable 2013-14, Table 225
  11. ^ GB National Rail Timetable May 2016, Table 225

Sources

  • Brailsford, Martyn, ed. (December 2017) [1987]. Railway Track Diagrams 1: Scotland & Isle of Man (6th ed.). Frome: Trackmaps. .
  • .