Iconic decommissioned Glasgow Subway carriages saved from scrapyard by campaigners
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Campaigners have successfully saved around half of the decommissioned Glasgow Subway carriages - after they embarked on their last journey in June.
The iconic trains, which served the City of Glasgow for 44 years, were decommissioned in June and there were fears that they might have ended up on the scrapheap.
The entire rolling stock was acquired by Swiss firm Stadler Rail, the company that supplied the next generation of trains that now run on the inner and outer circle lines. One carriage is set to be preserved in Glasgow at the transport museum. Stadler had set a price of £5,000 for each of the other heritage carriages - although indicated that this cost could be waived if an appropriate home was found for the stock.
Today (7 November), Glasgow MSP Paul Sweeney has now announced that around half of the stock will be saved from the scrapyard.
Taking to Facebook, Mr Sweeney said: “After much persistence, a team of us have managed to save around half of the 1980 Metro-Cammell Glasgow Subway cars from the scrap yard.
“A huge thanks to Ben Denton-Cardew for his relentless work to secure deals for these much loved little trains and for project managing their re-homing.”
Speaking in July, Mr Denton-Cardew, who is a rail industry lawyer, told the Scottish Daily Mail that “it would be such a loss of Scottish railway heritage” if they were to be scrapped.
He continued: “I have clients – actual and potential – lined up, including film companies and rail heritage sites in Scotland, and there has been great interest in saving these trains.
“To me and many others, the subway carriages are more than just trains. They are part of the fabric of this city and that is something which is fundamentally worth preserving.”
The trains are currently at the Glasgow Subway depot in Govan. The remaining carriages were scrapped at the end of August.
Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT), which runs the Glasgow Subway, are working on a program that will lead to driverless trains on the network and the installation of London Underground-style platform screen doors at stations by the end of the year.