3.5K 
Since early 2014, there has been a proposal before Glasgow City Council to study the potential costs and public benefits of a light rail link from Glasgow City Centre to the Glasgow Airport. This follows a series of failed attempts to restore light rail service to city streets during the 1990s. To be considered part of the nationally backed £1.13 billion Glasgow City Region funding initiative, the airport link has received the green light for a thorough round of studies and public consultations, which are now underway. If successful, the plan will be the first light rail project for Glasgow since the removal of the once extensive Glasgow Tramway in 1962, which was once one of the largest light rail networks in Europe, as well as the last tram network to operate in the whole of Britain. This edition of Once Upon a Tram will take a look at the fascinating history of the Glasgow Tramway, along with a quick glimpse of the Glasgow Underground, the third oldest — and 13th shortest — subway network in the world.
Begun by the Glasgow Tramways Act of 1870, what became the Glasgow Tramway two years later was originally operated as a horse-car line by the Glasgow Tramway and Omnibus Company, which was run privately from its incorporation in 1872 until its public takeover in 1894. Starting with just four kilometres of track, Glasgow's early street rail network was expanded throughout the late 19th century to accommodate the needs of a rapidly growing urban centre, as Glasgow was the industrial heart of 19th-century Scotland.
Following the termination of their private operating lease on June 30, 1894, the Glasgow Tramway and Omnibus Company was effectively bought out and reorganized by City Council as Glasgow Corporation Tramways, with regular service resuming the following day. Electrification followed soon after, with electric streetcar service introduced to the network in 1898, and Glasgow's last horse-cars retired just a few years later in 1902.
Due to its convenient location within a large industrial centre, it was not long before Glasgow Corporation Tramways took advantage of the city's local manufacturing power with an order for 400 new electrified trams, all which were produced at a workshop at Coplawhill, Pollokshields, located in south Glasgow. Power for the newly electrified network was provided by the Pinkston Power Station at Port Dundas, with substations built all across the city. The majority of these substations were also used to power the Glasgow Subway upon its opening in 1896.
By the 1920s, the Glasgow Tramway had reached its zenith, with a network that included more than 160 kilometres of track, over which more than 1000 municipally owned and operated trams ran along several lines, criss-crossing central and suburban Glasgow. Combined with the addition of the subway, the third such underground network after London and Budapest, it was no stretch of the imagination to consider Glasgow among the most innovative public transit leaders in the world, a title it would hold onto for more than a generation.
With a fleet of more than 1,000 cars during its early 20th-century heyday, the Glasgow Corporation Tramways' large collection of trams gradually grew to incorporate several different vintages, makes, and models, ranging from repurposed horse-cars dating to the turn of the century, to the final modern additions to the fleet. The bulk of the newer cars were produced during the late 1930s, with the last new cars to come off the production line entering service by the early 1950s. While there are too many versions to recollect here, the mainstay workhorses of the fleet were the various generations of double-decker cars, which by far outnumbered all others in service across the Glasgow Tramway's 90-year run.
Popular throughout the first half of the 20th century, the Glasgow Tramway was long the pride of Glasgow, its massive collection of double-decker cars an icon of the city's innovation and industry, a tangible daily reminder of Glasgow's prominence as a major contributor to Britain's world-renowned industrial prowess. Reaching a peak population of nearly 1.2 million in 1939, the streets of central Glasgow were just as, if not more, chaotic than those found in central London, the archival street scene pictured below highlighting the beautiful urban chaos that typified the era.
Similar to the fate of countless other tram and streetcar networks around the world, the arrival of the Postwar Automobile Era spelled the end for electrified surface rail throughout Glasgow. The city's massive tram fleet was gradually pulled from city streets starting in the late 1950s, and the final run was celebrated with a large public procession that was 250,000 strong on September 4, 1962. Replaced for a time by electric trolley buses, the entire fleet was soon converted to diesel power by the end of 1967, thus bringing an end to electrified surface transportation in Glasgow for the next 50 years.
While the end of the line for Glasgow's tram network arrived in 1962, the operation of its by then historic and rapidly aging Glasgow Underground (changed from "Glasgow Subway" in 1936 following its public takeover), continued for another 15 years until 1977, when the 80-year-old network was completely modernized. All 15 stations were fully retrofitted, along with the replacement of the network's 10.5 kilometres of track, signalling mechanisms, and trains. Reopened to the public in 1980 following three years of work, the Glasgow Underground was once again the pride of Glasgow; the world's third oldest subway system became the world's most modern for a time.
Small by most standards then as now, the diminutive tunnels, track gauge, and subway cars of the Glasgow Underground's 10.5-kilometre network provide users with an experience like no other. Operating along the same oval-shaped route with which it was opened in 1896, the tiny stations and passenger cars are unique to the city. Taking just 24 minutes to complete the loop, the twin Outer and Inner Lines, move clockwise and counterclockwise respectively, carry approximately 35,000 passengers per day to any of the network's 15 stations.
While there are no immediate plans to restore anything resembling the Glasgow Tramway of the past, the local political climate appears to be warming to the notion of at least exploring a light rail airport link for its merits — a major step for a city that has taken a relatively conservative approach to surface rail over the last two decades. Proposed to run on existing tracks between Glasgow Central Station and Paisley Gilmour Street Station before continuing on to the Glasgow Airport via a new two-kilometre railway spur, the Glasgow Airport Rail Link will serve to bring the city in line with many other major world cities. If successful, the line could potentially become a catalyst for future light rail initiatives in Glasgow, a city long overdue for an LRT renaissance of its own.
SkyriseCities will return soon with a new edition of Once Upon a Tram, which will take an in-depth look at the transit legacy of a city near you. In the meantime, feel free to join the conversation in the comments section below. Got an idea for this series? Let us know!
