Motherwell railway station

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.

Motherwell
Scottish Gaelic: Tobar na Màthar[1]
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	55.791570°N 3.994208°W / 55.791570; -3.994208
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*
2014/15	1.226 million
2015/16	1.258 million
2016/17	1.387 million
2017/18	1.419 million
2018/19	1.387 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.

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

History

The first station in Motherwell was opened by the Wishaw and Coltness Railway on 8 May 1843 and was located at Orbiston. As Orbiston station was quite some distance from the rapidly expanding Motherwell town centre, the decision was taken by the Caledonian Railway 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. That Motherwell station was opened on 31 July 1885 on a site conveniently in the heart of the town which replaced the original station.

The current station was built by British Rail during the 1970s on the same site of that more convenient one 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 an 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.[2]

Services provided by other operators or limited services

Some services are provided by other operators. As of 2016 these are follows,

TransPennine Express

Provide a 2 hourly service to both Glasgow Central and Manchester Airport, In addition on weekends there is a limited service to Liverpool Lime Street these operate as follows: On Saturdays, There is 1 train per day, On Sundays 2 trains call, All other trains to/from Liverpool and trains on weekdays don't call here.

Avanti West Coast

Provide 8 trains per day with 4 trains per day to Glasgow Central and 4 trains per day to London Euston one of which operates via Birmingham.

London North Eastern Railway

Provide 1 train per day to both Glasgow Central and London Kings Cross[3]

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 and Plymouth via Newcastle and Leeds.[4] 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 London North Eastern Railway 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
Lockerbie or Carlisle		Avanti West Coast West Coast Main Line		Glasgow Central
Haymarket		CrossCountry Cross Country Network		Glasgow Central
Haymarket		London North Eastern Railway East Coast Main Line		Glasgow Central
Lockerbie		TransPennine Express Manchester/Lancaster-Glasgow		Glasgow Central
Carstairs or Lockerbie		TransPennine Express Preston-Glasgow		Glasgow Central
Whifflet or Bellshill or Uddingston		Abellio ScotRail Argyle Line		Airbles or Shieldmuir
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.

References

1. Brailsford, Martyn, ed. (December 2017) [1987]. "Gaelic/English Station Index". Railway Track Diagrams 1: Scotland & Isle of Man (6th ed.). Frome: Trackmaps. ISBN 978-0-9549866-9-8.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
2. GB National Rail Timetable May–December 2015, Tables 225 & 226
3. GB NRT, Tables 26 & 65
4. GB NRT, Table 51

External links

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