City Union Line

City of Glasgow Union Railway

Overview
Locale	Scotland
Dates of operation	12 December 1870–31 December 1922
Successor	LMS & LNER
Technical
Track gauge	4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)
Route map Legend Edinburgh & Glasgow Railway Springburn Sighthill Junction Barnhill Garnkirk and Glasgow Railway Blochairn Iron Works Garngad Provan Gas Works Alexandra Parade Haghill Goods Haghill Junction Duke Street Coatbridge Branch (NBR) Bellgrove High Street East Junction Glasgow City and District Railway Gallowgate St Enoch (Dunlop Street) Saltmarket Junction Clyde Junction River Clyde Gorbals Junction Gorbals Southside Glasgow, Barrhead and Neilston Direct Railway Main Street Cumberland Street Paisley Canal Line (until 1967) Glasgow and Paisley Joint Railway General Terminus and Glasgow Harbour Railway Shields Road Shields Junction Glasgow and Paisley Joint Railway

The City of Glasgow Union Railway – City Union Line, also known as the Tron Line, was a railway company founded in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1864 to build a line connecting the railway systems north and south of the River Clyde, and to build a central passenger terminus and a general goods depot for the city. The through line, running from south-west to north-east across the city, opened in 1870–71, and the passenger terminal was St Enoch railway station, opened in 1876. The railway bridge across the Clyde was the first in the city.

The northern section of the line passed to the North British Railway company (NBR) and became part of its suburban network. St Enoch became the passenger terminus for the Glasgow and South Western Railway, but other companies made little use of it. However, the general goods terminal at College became important, and goods and mineral traffic were the dominant traffic of the through route. The south-western section of the line was quadrupled, and the platform accommodation was doubled, in the last years of the nineteenth century.

In the 1960s, rationalisation of railway facilities was the theme, and all the south-facing passenger services were concentrated at Glasgow Central station. St Enoch closed on 27 June 1966 and most of the site is now occupied by the St Enoch Centre shopping mall. College goods also succumbed and was closed.

The through route remained open for occasional freight services and for empty passenger stock movements across the city. The Bellgrove section that passed to the NBR remains in intensive passenger use, but the elevated section across the city is the iconic part of the line, with large span lattice bridges over Saltmarket, London Road and Gallowgate, which is currently only used for non-passenger movements of trains.

A railway development scheme being considered may lead to renewed use of the line as a cross-city passenger link.^[1]