Glasgow City and District Railway

The line was electrified in 1960 and today forms the central part of the North Clyde electric railway network.

Some short lines to small towns with an industrial base were opened, and these encouraged residential development: the beginning of daily travel to work by train; but there was no suburban network.

On the east side, the Monklands area around Airdrie and Coatbridge had become the centre of the iron industries; it had extensive seams of good quality coal and of blackband ironstone.

The NBR network now developed west of the city, driven chiefly by the expansion westwards of heavy industry and of docking facilities for steamers.

The Glasgow City and District Railway, an independent company sponsored by the NBR, was authorised on 10 August 1882 to make a line from the College station to Stobcross, a distance of 3 miles (5 km).

[1][page needed] The GC&DR line opened on 15 March 1886, and the company was amalgamated with the North British Railway.

On the same day the NBR opened the short Hyndland branch from Partick Junction, providing a western terminus for some trains.

At first the carriages were unlit, but following protests an incandescent lighting system was provided, powered from a conductor fixed to the tunnel walls.

Proposed solutions to vent the tunnels proved to be unacceptable to local residents, and for some years the issue remained contentious.

Under a modernisation scheme of 1955, the GC&DR route was to be electrified as part of a proposed enhancement of the whole of the former NBR North Clyde lines.

The four platforms at Queen Street Low Level were closed from 10 to 13 August 1959 for remodelling to a simple two-platform station as a prelude to electrification.

[6][page needed] The original GC&DR line through the city is open, carrying a busy suburban passenger service operated by ScotRail.