Whifflet railway station

Whifflet railway station is located in the Whifflet area of Coatbridge. Train services are provided by Abellio ScotRail. Until December 2014 it was the terminal station on the Whifflet Line, since when it is served by Argyle Line services.

Whifflet
Location
PlaceCoatbridge
Local authorityNorth Lanarkshire
Coordinates55.8539°N 4.0188°W / 55.8539; -4.0188
Operations
Station codeWFF
Managed byAbellio ScotRail
Number of platforms2
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections
from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2014/15 0.234 million
– Interchange  4,313
2015/16 0.247 million
– Interchange  7,549
2016/17 0.330 million
– Interchange  13,120
2017/18 0.301 million
– Interchange  10,957
2018/19 0.258 million
– Interchange  8,128
Passenger Transport Executive
PTESPT
History
21 December 1992Opened by British Rail
National Rail – UK railway stations
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Whifflet from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.

To the east of the station is the link line from the North Clyde Line at Sunnyside Junction. There are no platforms on this line, but it is used by empty EMUs laying over between trips from Glasgow.

History
Whifflet station in 1996

The station here is a relatively recent addition to the Glasgow suburban network, opening on 21 December 1992 by British Rail and initially served by the Argyle Line branch between Motherwell and Coatbridge Central.[1] It subsequently became the terminus for the former Rutherglen and Coatbridge Railway route from Glasgow Central when that route reopened to passenger traffic on 4 October 1993. The station on this site is completely new - services originally operated from Glasgow Central High Level to Coatbridge Central over the R&CR route up until their demise (due to the Beeching Axe) on 7 November 1966.[2]

Whifflet had no fewer than three other stations serving it in the past, along with a complex network of routes operated by several different pre-grouping companies (including the Monkland and Kirkintilloch Railway and Garnkirk and Glasgow Railway). All of them - the ex-M&KR/NBR depot on the line from Sunnyside Junction (which was sited a short distance east of the current station) and the Caledonian Railway's bi-level Whifflet Upper and Lower stations (located north of Whifflet North Junction where the two lines crossed) had been shut down by the mid-1960s - the North British station was closed in November 1962, whilst both CR ones closed on 5 October 1964 (though the Upper station had been a terminus since 1943).[3]

When the line from Rutherglen was reopened, using Coatbridge Central as the eastern terminus was ruled out on operational and safety grounds. Trains on the new line would have had to use the single track connection from Langloan West Junction to reach Coatbridge and the use of single lead junctions for new services was discouraged at the time following two recent fatal accidents in the area (at Bellgrove and Newton) involving such layouts. Re-doubling this stretch of line wasn't considered to be economically justifiable, so a route using the double line curve to Whifflet North was chosen, with the station acting as the new terminus for the route in addition to serving the local area.

It has also been a stop on the Motherwell to Cumbernauld Line since the route began operating in 1996 and is now served by Argyle Line electric trains between Motherwell and Cumbernauld via Coatbridge Central, the line through here having been wired in 1981 to provide access to the container terminal at Gartsherrie for electrically-hauled freight trains (and subsequently extended north through to Cumbernauld in May 2014 as part of the Cumbernauld Line electrification scheme).

The line to Glasgow was also electrified in 2014. Originally due to be completed prior to the Commonwealth Games being held in the city, it was not commissioned until the December 2014 timetable change.[4] This is still four years earlier than originally planned and has seen the route incorporated into the Argyle Line and freed up the DMUs in use previously for redeployment elsewhere.

Services

2006–2014

The typical off-peak service between 2006 and 2014, prior to services being fully absorbed into the Argyle Line timetable, was:

In addition to the services above, the station is served by Argyle Line trains running through to Cumbernauld in the morning and early evening peak hours operated by Class 318 or Class 334.[7]

There was also a service from Glasgow Central through Whifflet on to Shotts on the four Sundays before Christmas 2013.

From December 2014

The typical off-peak service every hourly since December 2014 consists of three northbound and three southbound trains:

From 14 December 2014 the station is also served on Sundays regularly for the first time by an hourly service between Balloch and Motherwell.[8]

Preceding station National Rail Following station
Coatbridge Central
or Kirkwood		   Abellio ScotRail
Argyle Line
  Motherwell
or Terminus
  Historical railways  
connection to
Wishaw and Coltness Railway		   Garnkirk and Glasgow Railway
Caledonian Railway Main Line		   Coatbridge Central
Mossend   Wishaw and Coltness Railway
Caledonian Railway Main Line		   connection to
Garnkirk and Glasgow Railway
Terminus   Rutherglen and Coatbridge Railway
Caledonian Railway
   Langloan
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gollark: But CTCP is fun and cool!
gollark: Oh, yes, that.

References
  1. Scot-Rail - Station Re-openings since 1960 www.scot-rail.co.uk; Retrieved 2013-12-23
  2. Railscot Chronology - Rutherglen and Coatbridge RailwayRailscot; Retrieved 2013-12-23
  3. Whifflet Upper and Lower Station sites Thompson, Nigel' Geograph.org; Retrieved 2013-12-23
  4. RTM - "Whifflet route to be electrified ahead of 2014"Rail Technology Magazine 31-05-2013; Retrieved 2013-12-23
  5. Railscot photo of Class 158 at Whifflet in 2011 Retrieved 2013-12-23
  6. GB National Rail Timetable 2013-14, Tables 220 & 224 (Network Rail)
  7. GB National Rail Timetable May–December 2014, Table 226 (Network Rail)
  8. Table 225 National Rail timetable, May 2016

Sources
  • Butt, R. V. J. (1995). The Directory of Railway Stations: details every public and private passenger station, halt, platform and stopping place, past and present (1st ed.). Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 978-1-85260-508-7. OCLC 60251199.
  • Jowett, Alan (March 1989). Jowett's Railway Atlas of Great Britain and Ireland: From Pre-Grouping to the Present Day (1st ed.). Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 978-1-85260-086-0. OCLC 22311137.
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