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STATIONS
1,1 NEW PL ATFORM
NEW ST ATION
DAVID SHIRRES
T
he December timetable change saw Scotland getting its 358th railway station and the reinstatement of a station platform that was removed in the late 1980s. The new station at Robroyston, north east of Glasgow, and the new platform at Dunbar in East Lothian are, as Alex Hynes, managing director of Scotland’s Railway, put it, “further milestones as we build the best railway Scotland’s ever had”. Another December milestone was the introduction of the full eight-coach service on the Edinburgh to Glasgow main line.
Funding Robroyston
Robroyston lies just within the Glasgow city boundary, four miles from the city centre. Here, in 1305, Scottish hero William Wallace was captured when he was betrayed to the English. The location of his capture is marked by a monument next to one of the new housing estates in the area. Proposals for a further housing development of 1,600 homes with a new hotel, primary school and outdoor sports facility were developed and approved in principle by the council in 2012, subject to the provision of a railway station. The city was keen that this development had rail access and offered a park and ride facility for traffic from the adjacent junction 2 of the M80 motorway.
Rail Engineer | Issue 181 | Jan/Feb 2020