Strathclyde 20-23 May 2009

Wednesday 20 May


A bumper trip and the last of my trips to Scotland for the quest. Planned for two days during my week off before I start working for the railway, I head for Glasgow on the sleeper on the night of Wednesday 20 May 2009. I have managed to get a first class return to Glasgow with a single berth for just £118, a miracle price that I can only assume I got because the overnight train is less busy mid week - I've usually been on a Friday. As an added bonus I am allowed to use the first class lounge at Euston. This is very useful as I do a fitness class before getting the train and it's great to be able to have a shower and change in the lounge, not to mention a few free cups of tea. There's no food though, so I head straight for the buffet when I get on the train and have a small meal before turning in. It's an uneventful trip, I sleep right through past Motherwell but don't dwell after breakfast as the day's quest starts just 15 minutes later.

Thursday 21 May

First trip is a return on the Paisley Canal branch on a four coach 156 DMU. I stay on at the terminus as there is no turnback. It's a fairly busy commuter service on the return to the city. Then it's the East Kilbride branch on a two coach 156 DMU, another straightforward return out and back. All's well so far.

Next I head down to Glasgow Central Low Level to pick up the Lanark train. Low Level is through platforms running at right angles to the terminating platforms, rather like the Circle Line runs under several London termini. It's a three coach 318 EMU. Then I hit a problem. A fire has caused the Wishaw loop to close and this means the next leg of the journey can't be completed. The train should have run via Blantyre, Motherwell, then round a loop to Holytown and Wishaw, rejoining the line south of Motherwell before spurring off to the Larnark branch. Instead it goes to Motherwell then reverses, cutting out the loop and heading straight to Lanark. At Lanark I stay on the train and return to Cambuslang, hoping I can complete the loop later. At Cambuslang I change on to a three coach 318 EMU to the slightly edgy Hamilton Central. Then it's a three coach 334 EMU along the Larkhall branch. This was the first of the Scottish Parliament's re-opening schemes in 2005. Again, there's no turnback so I just stay on the train and return to Central. I'll be spending a lot of time backwards and forwards from Motherwell!


At Central there's time to grab a sandwich and coffee then it's back on the trains, another 3 coach 318 EMU to Neilston. Another out and back. Then out to Whifflet on a 2 coach 156 DMU. Interestingly there is a lot of overlap of electrification around Strathclyde, so there are a lot of DMUs travelling under the wires. It makes sense that the Scottish Parliament wants to electrify as much as possible. It also proves that transport is better provided locally. Electrifying to Aberdeen or Perth doesn't matter much to a London-based DFT but in the context of Scotland alone these are big cities worthy of a more efficient electric service. And it benefits London too - if Edinburgh to Aberdeen is electrified there's no need for HSTs to run under the wires for hundreds of miles as they do now before doing a short final run to Aberdeen. Rant over.


Whifflet is actually on the line between Motherwell and Cumbernauld, itself on the line between Glasgow and Falkirk. The line from Glasgow curves in from the north to join it and the train continues south then returns on the opposite platform. As the rain starts to hammer I get on the service coming north from Motherwell, another 3 coach 156 DMU. At Cumbernauld, I stay on and head back to Motherwell. It's a weird arrangement there, there are four platforms with the station buildings and a car park stuck in the middle of the central island platform with a bridge to take you to the exit and the other two platforms. The Wishaw loop is now open but a quick read of the timetable reveals that there is a four hour hole in the timetable for the loop! I decide to leave it until tomorrow morning. Meanwhile I clamber on to a six coach 334 EMU, already quite full, and, as we are entering the evening rush hour, is standing only by the time we head past Central Low Level. Because it's underground the line can travel under the city to join the lines running east to west in the north of the place, neatly connecting South East Glasgow with the areas north of the conurbation. There is no corresponding link from the South West but there are plans to re-open a freight only link to achieve this. If it's going to happen anywhere it will be here!


The train I'm on travels out of the underworld and up on to a viaduct, giving a vision of the impressive view of the Clyde and some of the developments springing up there. I get off at Partick, which has a huge clean new station which is an interchange for the underground and buses - very smart. I cross to the other platform and head back to Central. From here I get a train out to Drumbreck on the Paisley Canal branch - this time it's to go to a fitness class that I do in London that has branches all over the place! It's a nice way to finish a day dashing about.


I just make the return train to Central after the class, then walk to Queen Street. There I pick up a 3 coach 170 DMU (none of the High Level tracks are electrified, though the east west line running in the Low Level station is) to Springburn. Whilst Springburn is a through station on the line to Falkirk, it's also a terminus on a separate branch from Queen Street Low Level. I get on a three coach 320 EMU from the branch from Springburn to Alexandra Parade, the nearest station to my hotel. And there the day ends.


Friday 22 May

A pleasant night in a clean guest house is followed by a huge but welcome breakfast. Then I head back to Alexandra Parade, where I pick up where I left off and get another 320 along the rest of the branch to Queen Street Low Level. From here the amount of time I have left to me, the long period of daylight up here, and the relatively high frequency of trains allows me to pretty much make it up as I go along today. So I just travel according to what is available.

First up is a 320 EMU to Anniesland. As part of the Larkhall re-opening, the spur from Anniesland to Maryhill was also brought back into use with a new station opened at Kelvindale. I've travelled most of this branch before as the West Highland service uses it as far as Maryhill. But as there are stations on the re-opened bit, I have to travel it. A class 170 DMU takes me round the branch and back into Queen Street High Level. Then it's time to walk down to Central Low Level and complete the Wishaw loop. It's actually pretty rural and as I have done much of the route aside from the loop a few times now (!) I take the chance to relax and read. Once we get to Carluke I leap out and tear over the footbridge where I can see the return train - both were 318 EMUs again - and this saves me a bit of time in not having to do the Larkhall branch again.

The return train is actually going all the way to Milngavie so I stay on it beyond Central Low Level to complete another branch. On the return I change at Hyndland and tear over to a waiting 323 EMU that is going to Dalmuir via Yoker - mopping up another line in the process - there are two routes from Queen Street to Dalmuir and I travelled the other one on the way to the West Highland routes previously. At Dalmuir there's a bit of a wait for the next onward service so after helping a lady with a loaded pram over TWO footbridges, I head out to find a up of tea. Frankly it looks like the sort of place English voices get their heads kicked in but I stride out anyway to a sucessful mission.

From here it becomes a real head down affair. There are two more branches to the west side of the city north of the Clyde and I tackle each methodically. First is a 321 EMU to Balloch - the station that serves Loch Lomond. Then it's back to a rural Dalreoch - the landscape changes from rural to urban quickly here - and on to the Helensburgh Central branch on a 321 EMU.

At the large terminus this train becomes a service to Drumgelloch. Perfect! The last branch in Strathclyde. I stay on it all the way back through the city and out to the east to the slightly run down looking Airdrie and Drumgelloch. There's just time for me to look beyond the buffers where the line is being reinstated to Bathgate, providing a fourth route between Edinburgh and Glasgow. Not much work is going on this end, though I gather electrification and station rebuilding is going on at the Bathgate end. Two platforms are to be reinstated at this end as it will no longer be a terminus. This will definitely help the area as it will provide through links for so many more places to Edinburgh that could do with regeneration. After a quick look round it's back into the city centre. I get off at High Street to get some fresh air as I've a big gap before the last trip of the day and walk across to Queen Street.

The final line...the recently re-opened Stirling to Alloa line. The Glasgow - Stirling trains now extend beyond to Alloa, which when I get there I can see really needs the boost that a line re-opening gives. How could they have ever closed the line to a place of this size in the first place? Some of the closures beggar belief. The way it was re-opened was quite neat. Thanks to the deliberate run down of the coal industry and the dash for gas that followed, now that gas is running out we have to import the coal needed for power generation. There has been a massive rise in coal trains in recent years. Up here it comes in at Stranraer and had to travel via the Forth Bridgde to Longannet Power Station in Fife, and was taking up capacity on this obvious bottleneck. By re-opening the line from Stirling to Kincardine, the coal trains can travel through Glasgow and Stirling instead, staying away the bridge. Alloa just happens to be on the route. There is also talk of extending passenger trains to Kincardine and Dunfermiline eventually the same way, which would be useful, but it is just talk at present. After some chips it's back on the class 170 DMU to Queen Street.

And that's it. Scotland is completed. Amazing considering my first trip was Easter 2008, I never thought it could be done so quickly.

I now have a couple of hours to kill so take a long route back to Central via Partick rather than walk it. After a couple of drinks I get a fish supper and get on to the waiting Class 90 and MK2 coaches that comprise the sleeper to London. One more trip to Motherwell as it's the first stop. Then, aside from one interruption when the fire alarm goes off - false alarm! - it's back home - when I next wake up and head to the loo we are passing Carpender's Park. With a slight sense of regret I realise my trip is over. I now have just two lines to complete - ironically both have which have re-opened since I started the quest - one in England and one in Wales. Watch this spot.

Lines covered this time:

Central-Paisley Canal
Central-East Kilbride
Central Low Level-Newton-Hamilton-Motherwell-Lanark
Lanark-Bellshill-Cambuslang
Cambuslang-Hamilton-Larkhill
Larkhill-Central Low Level
Central-Neilston
Central-Whifflet
Whifflet-Cumbernauld
Cumbernauld-Motherwell
Springburn-Queen Street Low Level
Queen Street Low Level-Anniesland via Hyndland
Anniesland-Queen Street via Maryhill
Central Low Level-Newton-Hamilton-Motherwell-Holytown-Carluke
Carluke-Milngavie
Hyndland-Yoker-Dalmuir
Dalmuir-Balloch
Dalreoch-Helensburgh Central
Helensburgh Central-Queen Street Low Level-Drumgelloch
Queen Street-Stirling-Alloa

Strathclyde/SW Scotland 1-2 May 2009

Another trip to Scotland, this time the first of two to tackle the couple of lines in SW Scotland and a chunk of the massive Strathclyde railway system. It begins late on Thursday 30 April 2009 when I arrive at the Lowland Caledonian Sleeper at London Euston. I'm booked in the seated coach but, aware of the long days ahead of me would prefer a berth. Luckily there is a spare berth. I have to share but luckily there's no snoring from the bunk below! Also he is only only going as far as Motherwell which is handy because finding room for two people to struggle into clothes and sort out baggage at the same time in a sleeper compartment is a tall order. Anyway, I must be getting used to the sleeper because I sleep really well, waking up just twice, the second occasion being when we arrive at Carstairs and the train is divided into two portions, and I would be very surprised to sleep through being shunted. I step on to the platform at Glasgow Central at 7.20am and the quest continues.Before the main event I fit in three suburban lines. The first is out to Newton via Maxwell Park and back via Queens Park. Then on to the Cathcart Circle (called Inner and Outer to reflect the track used). All three trips are on 3 coach class 314 EMUs. It's very much being at home as I join the Glasgow rush hour, especially sitting on the Clyde bridge just outside Central station queuing for a platform - it's like going into Charing Cross to work.The first of three more epic trips then ensue. Epic because of the sheer length of time rather than distance! The first is back over the border to Carlisle via Kilmarnock. It's single track for a large chunk of the route and thus we sit waiting to pass at one point. I have a wander around Carlisle up to the castle and look around its many charity shops. It's a much smaller city than I remember and frankly, the station is possibly the most impressive sight there, despite it boasting a cathedral and a castle! Indeed, the station was originally called Carlisle Citadel. The incessant rain does not help the place.Next step is to catch one of the rare Carlisle to Stranraer services (in fact it has come all the way from Newcastle, and while publicised as a Northern Rail train, is run with Scotrail stock and crew). The journey almost backtracks the entire journey from Glasgow but splits off to the west after Kilmarnock and heads south west. When we reach Stranraer Harbour we are almost at the same latitude as Carlisle, ie, twice the distance as separates the two as the crow flies! It's a scenic trip through empty green sheep country. Hardly a road in sight and the odd signal box where driver and signaller swap tokens for the next stretch of line. Stranraer Harbour station is a massive affair, built chiefly to serve the Belfast ferry (which may well move to another port!) and has a feel of having hosted more traffic in the past. Indeed there was a London sleeper to conenct with the ferry as recently as the 1980s. Anyway, I have less than two hours before the return trip and so get myself a drink in a very Irish feeling bar and a haggis and chips to follow.Then it's back on the same train (a three coach class 156 DMU as the first one out to Carlisle was), but this time all the way to Glasgow Central. The rain is mostly gone and it's a beautiful evening. Ayr and Kilmarnock are the major towns on the route, but they have nothing on the amazing sprawl of Strathclyde that extends way beyond Glasgow itself. The night is a vista of blinking lights pretty much all the way after Ayr is passed. I head through the rowdy crowds around Central station for the youth hostel, only to discover I've cocked up the booking and got the wrong day. Needless to say they are full but call another place for me where I head next. It's not an ideal billet, shall we say, but it's 11pm and I need a bed for the night. I get off to sleep without trouble and depart shortly after 7am the next day.Back to Central and a quick breakfast. Then it's off to Ardrossan Harbour on the first 6 coach Class 334 of the day - the next four lines all being serviced by these. At Adrossan I track the line back to Saltcoats - 3 stops back but they are very close together - to get the Largs train. The stretch from Adrossan South Beach to Largs is very picturesque. At Largs I have no time to do anything other than get the return EMU to Paisley Gilmour Street - where the other Clyde Coast line diverges. This one takes me out through the very poor looking Greenock to Gourock, at the western fringe of the Clyde estuary. A quick turnaround later back to the somewhat depressed Port Glasgow - the junction for the Wemyss Bay branch. This branch seems considerably more attractive than the Gurock line, including a massive well preserved terminus feeding directly to the Bute Ferry and a halt seemingly built by and for an building IBM. At the end of the line it's another fast return and we're heading back to Glasgow. I wonder how these four coastal branches have managed to get electrified - as well as the line to Ayr - as it seems almost impossible to get much electrification in England full stop.Back at Central I grab lunch then jump on yet another two coach 156 DMU to Edinburgh Waverley via Shotts. This is the route back to London today due to engineering works on teh West Coast main line after Lancaster, and its handy because it mops up the last of the three routes between the two cities for me to cover (the others being via Carstairs and Falkirk). It seems to take forever because it stops everywhere but eventually the Forth bridges come into view and then the vista of Calton Hill and Arthur's Sear ahead of us. I just have time to get a drink in my favourite Edinburgh pub, the Half Way House, then I'm on to a class 43 hauled service - otherwise known as the High Speed Train Inter City 125 - that has come from Aberdeen and wil return me to London King's Cross for 10.20pm. To my delight I discover I've booked 1st class - a very cheap ticket that I'd completely forgotten about - a nice surprise as it means peace and free coffee!Back home via the Piccadilly line and Charing Cross, a satisfying trip including suburban, coast and inter city routes. In two weeks I am off to Scotland once more to mop up the remainder of the Strathclyde lines - watch this space.

Lines completed this trip:
Glasgow Central-Maxwell Park-Newton
Newton-Mount Florida-Glasgow Central
Glasgow Central-Cathcart-Glasgow Central
Glasgow Central-Dumfries-Carlisle
Carlisle-Troon-Stranraer
Stranraer-Ayr-Glasgow Central
Glasgow Central-Ardossan Harbour
Saltcoats-Largs
Largs-Paisley Gilmour Street
Paisley Gilmour Street-Gourock
Gourock-Port Glasgow
Port Glasgow-Wemyss Bay
Wemyss Bay-Glasgow Central
Glasgow Central-Shotts-Edinburgh Waverley

West Highland lines and err…DLR to Woolwich Arsenal 7-9 April 2009

A strange contrast but all will become clear much later. A combination of the long Easter weekend and me needing to use up leave as I am working my notice meant that I had the perfect opportunity to start mopping up some more of the Scottish lines that I need to complete – now within the next 18 months! This would be a trip of surprises and firsts…

A late night on Tuesday was not a good idea as I had to be on the 5.47 to Glasgow on Wednesday but these things tend to happen that way. So having barely been to bed I went down to the bus stop in Penge High Street in the rain and darkness at around 4am to get the 176 to town. It arrived on time and delivered me to Tottenham Court Road about 45 minutes later. Then all I had to do was walk up the aforementioned road to Euston. Both roads were still quite busy I noticed. At 5am I joined the queue for the only source of coffee at the aberration that is London Euston and gratefully found my seat at the very front of the class 390 Pendolino that would take me far from home.

It was still dark when we headed out of the train shed which I wasn’t expecting. I tried to get some much needed sleep though it’s hard in modern train seats. I wanted to be awake for the section beyond Lancaster as I’ve not travelled that much and as it’s through the fringe of the Lake District it’s worth seeing. In the event I just about remember opening half an eye at Crewe and Preston, hearing Lancaster in my sleep and waking up as we curled into Carlisle. Actually I remember Lichfield as I saw the distinctive three spires of the cathedral distantly. Anyway I keep a look out after Carlisle as we quickly cross the border into Scotland, but unlike on the East Coast there’s no ceremony here. No sign announcing the boundary or mile posts, which is rather disappointing.

Gradually the stations start to get closer together and we drift into the conurbation of Strathclyde. Then we’re across the Clyde and pull into Glasgow Central, four hours and forty minutes after leaving London. I’ve the best part of a couple of hours to kill before the first of my Highland trains leave so I decide to have a go on the Glasgow Underground – the oldest in the world I believe? So I head for Buchanan Street station – which used to be a heavy rail station and is now the Underground stop for Glasgow Queen Street – which is handy as it’s where my train will leave from.

I see why the system is nicknamed the “Clockwork Orange” now. The trains and tunnels are like a scaled-down version of the tube in London, thankfully there are not London-sized crowds of people trying to get on them. I do the full circuit in around 30 minutes. Only one other person in the car is there when I get on and off again, and he’s swigging from a can of Tennants Extra in a brown paper bag. We pass some famous names – Ibrox, Partick, Kelvinside etc, some of which are on Strathclyde’s extensive heavy rail network also. Doing that will possibly be the most complex quest of all when it comes, as it combines city, countryside and seaside, in an area bigger than Greater London but as complex as the Yorkshire area with interconnections and branches everywhere. And they keep opening because the Scottish Parliament is rather more progressive about transport than the British one!

I grab a coffee at Queen Street and wait for the West Highland train. I didn’t realise until today that it’s a combined train for Mallaig and Oban that splits at Crianlarich. As I’m heading to the latter first I have to get into the front two coaches of the four coach 156 Sprinter. It’s fairly well booked out which is hardly surprising as the line has been voted the most scenic in the WORLD recently! Astonishing. I try to resist sleep but I am so tired. I manage to be awake by the time we reach the Highlands proper, but even heading out of the conurbation I spot that we are chugging alongside lochs already. Its unfortunate but the long and winding routes to the Highlands are now no competition for roads – I’m told that there are no more single track A roads left now – whereas the railways are almost entirely single track. So when you travel by rail Scotland feels a lot bigger than it is because it takes you so long to reach some of it! Undoubtedly the railway is the most scenic though as it skirts the lochs and travels through the base of the glens – sometimes you can’t see a road for miles from the train.

We’re first off from Crianlarich after splitting and after enjoying a landscape of snow-capped mountains – a real treat – I am delivered to Oban, a fishing village. I have a couple of hours there in which I get the chance to explore a folly perched up on the hill above the town. It looks like the Coliseum and was designed to house a theatre but was never completed. It gives a great view over the harbour today where you can see the many ferries heading out to the Isles. After a fish supper – with beautiful local haddock – I’m off again to Crianlarich. With a thrill I see a row of stags watching the train go past – it’s a bit more sobering when you remember that they were only introduced for the gentry to go hunting, but still they are an impressive sight.

At Crianlarich I make for the youth hostel – my first stay in one. After doing TA selection and staying in barracks with 30 strangers a youth hostel seems nae problem. Except there’s none of the camaraderie, it’s just six disparate blokes looking for a bed for the night. It doesn’t help that there’s just one light which is off when I get back from the pub at around 11, so I have to undress and find my way to the top bunk in the dark. Oh well, it’s all an experience. I sleep surprisingly well and am up out and out by 8.15. The station has a nice little café where I have a protracted breakfast. It’s just as well I get there early as the place fills up fast with people from the hostel. I watch the first train down to Glasgow that delivers a Scotrail worker and his dog. I presume he’s the driver waiting for the up train to take whichever half doesn’t have one yet on. When the train arrives and splits though, it transpires he is the conductor. And this is where the surprises start.

When I get on I hear another Scotrail employee explaining to the couple behind me that our train is being driven by the youngest driver Scotrail has ever employed – she is 24 – and the first female driver on the West Highland line. The conductor with the dog jokes that I’ll have to put up with this talk all the way to Mallaig. I tell him it’s actually interesting to me as I start driver training with Southern next month. At this I’m invited into the back cab to have a quick look around, given a cup of tea etc etc. It’s great to be given a sneak preview of the controls and have the token exchange system explained to me – not that I will be using that in the busy south! We chat all the way to Mallaig about stuff. It transpires that he is an ex-army, motorbike riding rail enthusiast, so we have a bit to talk about. Later he gives me a lift back to Fort William. An amazing surprise. It was great to meet someone so generous and unassuming – it just wouldn’t happen down south. He was from Liverpool and absolutely loved living up there. Though I’m not certain I could live in such a place myself I understand his affection for the place.

I’ve a couple of hours in Fort William so I have a walk around, go up into the lower reaches of the hills that surround the place, and find a really nice pub, famous for its ales. I enjoy a couple of pints there and head for the station (rather annoyingly now cut off from the town by a busy road), getting a haggis and chips en route. I want to finish it before getting on the train so manage to burn my mouth on the haggis, which I suppose is as good a Caledonian experience as any to go home with.

At this point the sleeper is two sleeper cars, a buffet car and a luggage van, hauled by a class 67 diesel. Two similar trains leave Aberdeen and Inverness each night, all three meeting at Edinburgh where they are shunted into a different order and then hauled by a single class 90 electric back to London via the Carstairs line. I am shown to my cabin – I’ve got it to myself which means I can spread my stuff around, but I wouldn’t have been that bothered about sharing. I take the top bunk and read for a bit until we set off, then go to the lounge car for some tea. I don’t like the ordering arrangements – there is no hatch, you wait for the staff to come to you. The whole system seems designed to stop you dwelling because there is no easy way of placing more than one order!

Like the Penzance sleeper, this is very much a last train for locals as well as for long distance travellers, as it stops almost everywhere back to Glasgow, sometimes on request. This is good as it gives the line a fourth train and allows a slightly longer day at Fort William if needed. So it takes ages to get to Edinburgh. By ten I’m drifting off anyway so I return to my cabin and read for a bit, drifting off to sleep. I get into bed and don’t wake again until we stop at Edinburgh. I hear the shunter talking to the driver and remember I’ll be heading into this world soon, a strange thought. Amazingly the jolting of the train being shunted does not really disturb my sleep and the next time I wake and look out we’re at Preston – about four in the morning. The first time I went on a sleeper it was hard to sleep properly but it’s amazing how quickly you adapt. The motion of the train is very conducive to dozing off, as anyone who has slept through their stop can tell you.

I wake at Stafford briefly then return to sleep. At seven the alarm goes off and I get up and get ready. Breakfast comes about fifteen minutes later; it’s a strange mixture – a mini muffin, a small croissant and an odd muesli and gluey yoghurt combination plus coffee and shortbread. Not the most balanced meal I’ve had but my diet is shite at the moment anyway. I see a sign on a building telling me that we are near Rugby but I don’t know if we’ve passed the station yet. Either way it appears that there has been a huge delay as even after the West Coast refurb, trains can’t get from Rugby to London in the half hour left. We come to a halt. The train doesn’t move for ages and no others pass us. Bearing in mind that this is the busiest of the UK’s main lines, this means that something is seriously awry. I look out of the window and all the signals are at red. There are no announcements as usual so I check my Blackberry. There’s enough charge to find out that there has been a fatality at Wolverton and Euston is closed with nothing moving. I think of the driver for obvious reasons and hope that they don’t terminate us early and put us on buses.

About two hours pass, I’m grateful for the cabin as I can relax on the bunk and read. In fact this is the most relaxation I’ve had for ages I realise. I’m quite enjoying it! We eventually get going and I hang out of the windows to read the signals, we go very slowly past some single ambers, then I recognise a junction indicator, we get a green and we’re off at full speed until London.

It’s nearly three hours late and I don’t really feel like going home yet, having had plenty of rest. I decide to do some more bashing and head for Marylebone to do the new Aylesbury Parkway station – a bit of reopened line! However there are buses on part of the route so I forget that and decide to do the DLR extension to Woolwich Arsenal instead. It’s the only bit of London’s transport that I’ve not travelled on. It opened to George V Dock a couple of years ago but I knew it would be going through to Woolwich a couple of years later so I held off – travelling through the Docklands is not THAT exciting(!) What is interesting is that it took over the North London Line from Canning Town to North Woolwich and then continued south of the river to Woolwich proper. So there is another first for this trip – travelling under the newest Thames tunnel! There is more to come in London in terms of lines to travel – the DLR is taking over the North London Line from Canning Town to Stratford and beyond to the International Station where it will meet the SE Trains High Speed services to St Pancras. A start is being made on Crossrail. But first there will be the East London Line, close to my own home, which will see trains running from Croydon and Crystal Palace through to Highbury and Islington via a re-opened line between Broad Street and Dalston.

Home is reached at around 4.30pm. It feels like a long time since I’ve been there.

Lines covered this trip:

Glasgow Queen Street-Singer-Oban
Oban-Crianlarich-Mallaig
Glasgow Underground

Tyne and Wear Metro 1 March 2009

I'm in Newcastle to see the Kaiser Chiefs. It's a good excuse to visit the city and to travel the Tyne and Wear Metro. I've not written about my light rail trips as they don’t seem like the real thing to me. The T&W was converted from existing heavy rail, runs on proper tracks with proper stations, rather than on the road, and was extended to join up on both sides of the city, so it feels like a proper railway to me. The other systems I’ve been on so far are:

London Underground
DLR
Croydon Tramlink
West Midlands Metro

I’ve also travelled parts of the Manchester, Sheffield and Nottingham systems in the course of getting around but intend to go back and do them fully at some point. I also want to cover the Glasgow Underground – the Clockwork Orange as it is known. But for the moment I’m at a cold Newcastle Central station trying to find breakfast after a terrible night in a cheap hotel. I buy an all day ticket and I’m off.

First leg is out to Newcastle Airport to the North West of the city via the suburb of Jesmond. This has two interchanges at Monument – on a separate level – and South Gosforth – a straightforward spur – which are both ends of a loop out to the coast at Whitely Bay.

At the Airport there is a longish wait for the train to turn back before it returns back the way it came. I discover that the driver’s cab only takes up one of the two windows at the front of the unit. Not great for the driver, where my sympathies are now starting to lean, but great for the passenger who can get a decent driver’s eye of the track. Out in the rural areas of the system this is okay but in the suburbs and centre this gives you a full view of the same sad vandalism that makes Britain so tatty these days. The front seat gives you a fantastic vista of the Tyne as we cross over the QE2 bridge and into Gateshead.

From here the line runs parallel to the heavy rail line to Sunderland, presumably the metro having taken over the intermediate stations that the heavy rail line now speeds past. At Pelaw there is a grade separated junction where one branch goes to South Shields, which I’ll come back to. For now the line continues over the Wear and into the murky depths of Sunderland station before running along the south bank of the Wear to a terminus at South Hylton. Ahead you can see where the line used to continue to Durham – it’s now a footpath. This is the furthest most extension of the system and I gather not as successful as was hoped so far, but I’m just pleased that another railway has been reinstated in this way.

I head back to Pelaw and change trains for South Shields. My intention is then to catch the ferry across to North Shields. I assumed that the railway went right up to the river front but not so – maybe it did in the past? Anyway a short walk through the ubiquitous paved shopping area takes me to a waiting room for the ferry – very welcome in the cold and wet weather today. It’s a short trip across the Tyne to North Shields. This is slightly more pleasant than its South counterpart despite the steep climb up to the station – where presumably a train could never have got.

North Shields is a through station rather than a terminus, at the edge of the loop mentioned earlier from Monument to South Gosforth. The first train to come is heading back towards Newcastle and I catch this. At Monument in the city centre it continues out to St James Park Stadium, they’re away this week so the place is deserted. I ask the driver where the train is going now and luckily it’s doing the whole loop so I don’t need to change again.

We head off about ten minutes later and head back towards North Shields, passing some famous but very down at heel places such as Byker and Wallsend. After North Shields the line turns north and heads up the coast to Whitely Bay, then turns west and back towards the city, joining the line into Central at South Gosforth. I continue to Central where my journey ends.