Inverclyde councillor in campaign to resurrect Kilmacolm's railway

[och aye]

Is this a viable idea or another one of these fantasies like Stranraer - Dumfries?

Inverclyde councillor in campaign to resurrect Kilmacolm's railway

AN Inverclyde councillor is making tracks in a campaign to resurrect Kilmacolm's railway.

www.greenocktelegraph.co.uk

AN Inverclyde councillor is making tracks in a campaign to resurrect Kilmacolm's railway.


Councillor Chris Curley says that the reopening of the line from Kilmacolm to Paisley should be considered as part of plans to improve public transport across the whole of the Gryffe valley.


Mr Curley says bringing the train station back in some form would help connectivity between villages and significantly reduce the time taken to get from Kilmacolm into the centre of Glasgow.
He believes a cost-effective and reliable train service would dissuade people from using their cars and help to reduce carbon emissions.
The Kilmacolm councillor said the idea of reinstating the line has been discussed for a number of years but he fears that if strategic plans aren't put in place soon, the opportunity will be lost.

 

[DarloRich]

All for this - makes another way to get to my mums. Build it now. Also the Lochwinnoch loop line while you are on

( its complete pie in the sky btw - i am sure a by pass has been built on the route at some point)

 

[gingerheid]

I think the route is intact apart from where the Kilbarchan bypass crosses it between Johnstone and Linwood? The line didn't close until 198...1?

 

[Energy]

Seems reasonable, it's only about 20 miles looking at google and shouldn't be too hard if it isn't obstructed.

However Port Glasgow is only a 8 minute drive and has a rail service to Glasgow.

Who is willing to pay for the line as well? How much would it roughly cost?

 

[30907]

It's only about 10m to Paisley Canal, less if you joined the GSW at Elderslie - which would reduce first cost but increase operating costs because you couldn't just extend the Canal services.

A direct bus from Glasgow just now is scheduled in 55min, train would take about 40min at a guess. The councillor reckons you would reduce journey time by about 50%....

Not being local, I don't know whether traffic levels would produce a viable business case - I used the line before it closed and the (midday) train wasn't busy, but that was then....

 

[och aye]

Seems reasonable, it's only about 20 miles looking at google and shouldn't be too hard if it isn't obstructed.

However Port Glasgow is only a 8 minute drive and has a rail service to Glasgow.

Who is willing to pay for the line as well? How much would it roughly cost?

Which ever political party is in charge will be "paying" for it of course

 

[hexagon789]

I think the route is intact apart from where the Kilbarchan bypass crosses it between Johnstone and Linwood? The line didn't close until 198...1?

Closed in 1983 having been curtailed from the original through route to Greenock and also singled before then. As a result the Paisley Canal line was also closed but that successfully re-opened in 1990 and has since then gone to a half-hourly frequency and been electrified.

If Kilmacolm were to be re-opened, I wonder if it would make more sense to re-connect the Paisley Canal line to the Ayrshire Main Line as well, as paths via Hillington and Paisley Gilmour Street must be getting short I'd have thought?

 

[GLC]

There's basically no more room at Glasgow Central either is there? So some service would need to be extended somehow

 

[hexagon789]

There's basically no more room at Glasgow Central either is there? So some service would need to be extended somehow

That's why I was thinking of extending the Paisley Canal services by re-opening the missing link from PC to Elderslie Jcn

 

[gingerheid]

I imagine it would have to be that. The paths and platform space they made for the airport service have already been claimed.

 

[30907]

That's why I was thinking of extending the Paisley Canal services by re-opening the missing link from PC to Elderslie Jcn

Is that instead of running them to Kilmacolm?

 

[318266]

The track bed became a cycle track, so that would still be intact. Paths wise - you could divert the to-be-removed-in-Dec-2020 xx55 train to Gourock over to Kilmacolm. Or, if the people of Paisley don't want the line to go past Canal and would rather send it through Gilmour Street, run it only from Gilmour St to Kilmacolm. Would save needing those paths through Hillington.

 

[OVS Flatbottom]

Reopening to Bridge of Weir was looked at in the Scottish Strategic Rail Study in 2002 (it's hard to draw precise conclusions from the published reports on that study, but from the fact that the line was included in the high resource scenario but not the medium resource one, it wouldn't appear all that promising) and again in the Scottish Planning Assessment (SPA) in 2006. I can't find the SPA report online any more, but I have a local copy, and this was what it said:

Intervention GSW-I05 – the intervention to reopen the railway from Bridge of Weir to
Johnstone on the Ayr route was not taken forward because there is unlikely to be
capacity for an additional service into Glasgow Central east of Paisley Gilmour Street,
particularly given the timetabling solution proposed between Paisley and Glasgow
Central that includes an additional hourly train. Furthermore, the population densities
served would be unlikely to create a robust business case. A mix of improved car
parking at Johnstone and Port Glasgow combined with a possible quality bus corridor is
likely to offer better value for money.

Connection to the Canal line doesn't seem to have been examined (though extending that line to Elderslie for additional freight capacity was seen favourably).

 

[hexagon789]

Is that instead of running them to Kilmacolm?

I meant extending one Paisley Canal per hour to Kilmacolm just as it used to be.

I imagine it would have to be that. The paths and platform space they made for the airport service have already been claimed.

That was what I was thinking

 

[30907]

I meant extending one Paisley Canal per hour to Kilmacolm just as it used to be.

Sorry, confused by ref to Elderslie Jn. I was assuming Kilmacolm via Canal too !

 

[hexagon789]

Sorry, confused by ref to Elderslie Jn. I was assuming Kilmacolm via Canal too !

Perhaps I've made a mistake? I thought Elderslie Jcn was the name of the junction where the Paisley Canal branch joined the Ayrshire Main Line, if I'm incorrect in that my apologies I don't have an old enough track atlas to check my memory is right!

 

[30907]

Perhaps I've made a mistake? I thought Elderslie Jcn was the name of the junction where the Paisley Canal branch joined the Ayrshire Main Line, if I'm incorrect in that my apologies I don't have an old enough track atlas to check my memory is right!

No, I had misremembered and thought the lines were basically separate (as the stopping passenger service was when I used it)it.
In fact Elderslie was one station served by both routes and the Greenock/Kilmacolm line left by a burrowing junction.

 

[hexagon789]

No, I had misremembered and thought the lines were basically separate (as the stopping passenger service was when I used it)it.
In fact Elderslie was one station served by both routes and the Greenock/Kilmacolm line left by a burrowing junction.

There were some Ardrossan and Largs workings which went via P. Canal right up until it was closed.

 

[adrock1976]

I may be looking at a big picture here as I am thinking that this would be one of two lines that would be converted as part of a project for Glasgow to bring back trams (Glasgow once had around 1000 trams and was once the Second City of the former British Empire).

The disused platforms at Corkerhill and Crookston would be brought back into use, with doubling of the line between Crookston and the Canal. I am unsure if the original formation beyond Canal was double track or not, or if there is sufficient space for double track to Kilmalcolm. This would allow a frequency increase to every 15 minutes or every 12 minutes.

Being as the East Kilbride and Kilmarnock routes are planned to be wired sometime in the future, and with the much lauded scenic stock that has been touted for the West Highlands, this may mean that the depot at Corkerhill may become surplus as that is the home depot of the Class 156s in Scotland. Corkerhill could become the tram depot, and combined with the conversion of the Neilston/Cathcart/Newton* to tram operation, both these routes could converge somewhere in the vicinity of West Street/Clyde Place and switch to on street running to Queen Street station via Central Station. Another route of the tram network to start off with would be Queen Street - Central - Broomielaw - Clyde Arc Bridge - Pacific Quay - Govan Cross - Southern General Hospital - Braehead Centre - Renfrew Cross - Airport - Love Street - Gilmour Street Station - Paisley Cross - Canal Station - Royal Alexandra Hospital.

*These routes were electrified back in 1960, meaning that the overhead lines are due to be replaced in the near future. Also, the stations are quite close together and would be suited to tram operation.