Motherwell railway station

Motherwell
Scottish Gaelic: Tobar na Màthar
Motherwell railway station at Platforms 1 and 2. Trains running on the West Coast Main Line stop here.
Location
Place	Motherwell
Local authority	North Lanarkshire
Coordinates
Grid reference	NS750571
Operations
Station code	MTH
Managed by	Abellio ScotRail
Owned by	Network Rail
Number of platforms	4
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2002/03	0.908 million
2004/05	0.962 million
2005/06	1.052 million
2006/07	1.095 million
2007/08	1.097 million
2008/09	1.366 million
2009/10	1.296 million
2010/11	1.358 million
2011/12	1.301 million
2012/13	1.293 million
2013/14	1.135 million
Passenger Transport Executive
PTE	Strathclyde Partnership for Transport
National Rail – UK railway stations
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Motherwell from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.
UK Railways portal

Motherwell looking from the south, with stabling sidings in the foreground. Platform 4 is closest to the camera. The bridge in the foreground has recently been replaced with a DDA compliant one.

View northward towards Glasgow Central in 1966

Motherwell railway station serves Motherwell in North Lanarkshire, Scotland. It lies on the West Coast Main Line (WCML), and is served also by Argyle Line trains of the Glasgow suburban railway network. It is the penultimate stop on the northbound WCML before Glasgow. There are four platforms of various length in use at Motherwell. The station is located next to the town's main shopping arcade, Motherwell Shopping Centre.

History

The current Motherwell station was built to replace an earlier station which was opened by the Caledonian Railway at nearby Orbiston. As Orbiston station was quite some distance from the rapidly expanding Motherwell town centre, the decision was taken to build a station at 'Lesmahagow Junction', the point where the Motherwell Deviation branch of the Caledonian Railway Main Line met the lines to Mossend, Hamilton and Lesmahagow. This new site was conveniently in the heart of the town.

The current station was built by British Rail during the 1970s on the site of the original to coincide with the electrification of the West Coast Main Line. It has four through platforms, crossed by two overbridges with the main buildings being above the level of the line between Platforms 2 and 3. At platform level between Platforms 2 and 3 there is also a Abellio ScotRail traincrew depot, staff car park and an office of the British Transport Police. These are accessible via a gated rampway leading to street level.

Beyond Platform 4 are some electrified sidings used for the stabling of trains overnight. Diagrams are nominally worked so that these units will only stay at Motherwell for one night before returning to their allocated depot.

Services

Local services departing to and from the station are provided by Abellio ScotRail and the majority of northbound services serve Glasgow Central (either terminating at the High Level station or passing through the Low Level station en route to Dalmuir or Milngavie), whilst southbound Argyle Line services terminate at Lanark or Carstairs.

Services provided by other operators or limited services

Some services are provided by other operators. As of May 2015 these are follows,

First TransPennine Express

Provide a very limited service, On Monday to Fridays, There is 1 train to Glasgow Central and a service in the evening calls but only stops to set down only (this means passengers can only alight only), On Saturdays, The set down only train calls. On Sunday, there is a southbound service to Manchester Airport (the only southbound service operated by TPE to call here) and the Set Down Only calls.

Virgin Trains West Coast

Provide 6 trains per day - there are 3 to Glasgow Central and 3 to London Euston.

Virgin Trains East Coast

Provide 1 train per day to both Glasgow Central and London Kings Cross

CrossCountry

Provide a regular service (roughly every two hours) to Glasgow Central and Edinburgh Waverley with most eastbound services extending to Birmingham New Street, Bristol Temple Meads & Plymouth via Newcastle and Leeds. A limited number run beyond Plymouth through to Penzance.

ScotRail

Provide limited services in addition to their normal services:

There is 1 train per day to Edinburgh Waverley via Shotts, this returns in the evening.

There are 2 trains per day to North Berwick,

There is a 2 hourly service to Edinburgh Waverley via Carstairs - several of these run to/from Ayr

A few peak time services operate to/from Carstairs

Motherwell is unusual in that Glasgow Central can be reached via trains from three different platforms going in two different directions. Glasgow is generally north-west of Motherwell, but trains can depart via the West Coast Main Line and Motherwell Deviation going North, or by the Hamilton Circle going South. The same can also be said for services to Lanark, which is south-east of Motherwell. Trains can depart towards Lanark going south via Shieldmuir, or initially north via Holytown (though this route is not normally used for timetabled trains since the December 2014 timetable alterations were implemented).

During times of disruption such as the closure of the West Coast Main Line between Uddingston and Law Junction for engineering works, Virgin Trains services and those of CrossCountry can be diverted along the Hamilton Circle and Wishaw Deviation (and sometimes the line to Edinburgh via Shotts) and will use Platforms 3 and 4. Trains provided by Virgin Trains East Coast will generally be suspended in this event as their drivers do not have the required route knowledge. In general, a replacement bus service will operate from Motherwell, and passengers from Glasgow are advised to travel to Edinburgh via Glasgow Queen Street.

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Haymarket		CrossCountry Cross Country Network		Glasgow Central
Lockerbie or Carlisle		Virgin Trains West Coast Main Line		Glasgow Central
Haymarket		Virgin Trains East Coast East Coast Main Line		Glasgow Central
Lockerbie		First TransPennine Express Manchester/Lancaster-Glasgow		Glasgow Central
Carstairs or Lockerbie		First TransPennine Express Preston-Glasgow		Glasgow Central
Holytown or Shieldmuir or Whifflet		Abellio ScotRail Argyle Line		Airbles or Bellshill or Uddingston
Terminus		Abellio ScotRail Motherwell to Cumbernauld Line		Whifflet
Wishaw		Abellio ScotRail North Berwick Line		Glasgow Central
Carstairs		Caledonian Sleeper Lowland Caledonian Sleeper		Glasgow Central
	Historical railways
Ferniegair Line and station open (except section between Ferniegair and Ross Junction)		Coalburn Branch Caledonian Railway		Terminus
Hamilton Central Line and station open		Hamilton Branch Caledonian Railway		Terminus
Terminus		Clydesdale Junction Railway		Uddingston Line and station open
Flemington (Cal.) Line open; station closed		Wishaw and Coltness Railway CR Main Line		Mossend Line open; station closed

Platforms

• Platform 1 is used for all southbound InterCity services as well as local services to Carstairs and Edinburgh. Services to Lanark use this platform every half hour. Lanark departures from this platform travel via Shieldmuir.

• Platform 2 is used for all northbound InterCity services to Glasgow Central as well as local northbound services to Glasgow Central from Edinburgh and Carstairs. Services from Lanark to Glasgow Central via Bellshill also use this platform.

• Platform 3 is used by services to Glasgow Central via Hamilton. Services on the Hamilton Circle line to Glasgow which have arrived via Whifflet also use this platform. One train a day from Edinburgh via Shotts terminates here. In addition on Sundays,trains from Motherwell to Glasgow Central via Bellshill use this platform.

• Platform 4 is used by all services on the Hamilton Circle to Glasgow which have arrived via Hamilton, as well as those terminating here to return via Hamilton. Also trains to Cumbernauld use this platform hourly.

External links

• Train times and station information for Motherwell railway station from National Rail