Yesterday I thought I'd have a bit jolly over to Glasgow and play around on their buses and trains...
Drove up to Beattock, a village halfway on the M74 between Glasgow and Carlisle where the Stagecoach Western X74 joins the motorway from Dumfries.
Saturday 9th April 2016
54259 0705 X74 Beattock School to Glasgow Buchanan Bus Station 0844
318257 318270 0927 Glasgow Central to Partick 0936
330429 334040 0938 Partick to Dumbarton Central
67728 1010 1A Dumbarton High Street to Glasgow Argyle Street 1120
32989 1125 21 Glasgow Argyle Street to Rutherglen Main Street 1146
63225 1229 267 Rutherglen Main Street to Glasgow St George's Square 1245
170478 170475 1301 Glasgow Queen Street LL to Croy (via Springburn and Cowlairs)
KU52YKC (Canavan Travel) 1344 43 Croy Rail Station to Cumbernauld 1351
54110 1403 X26 Cumbernauld to Glasgow Buchanan Bus Station 1423
67*** 1430 77 Glasgow Buchanan Bus Station to QEU Hospital
69040 1513 34A QEU Hospital to Mount Florida
314208 1602 Mount Florida to Glasgow Central via Cathcart
114 206 110 1637 3 St Enoch to Buchanan Galleries via Partick
170459 1751 Lenzie to Glasgow Queen Street LL 1817
33978HB 1718 X87 Glasgow Buchanan Bus Station to Lenzie 1733
170459 1751 Lenzie to Glasgow Queen Street LL 1817
334003 334007 1825 Glasgow Queen Street LL to Milngavie
320310 320321 1908 Milngavie to Partick 1927
334028 1930 Partick to Glasgow Queen Street LL 1936
54261 2015 X74 Glasgow Buchanan Bus Station to Beattock School
RailMiles Link
Start off with a decent and sedate journey on the X74 north. Still adore these coaches. Wifi worked well as did the power charge points. Hardly made a sound cruising along the motorway! Got to Glasgow and was stuck for choice on what to do first. Was wanting to aim for north of the Clyde but the 1/1A/1B stops at the other end of the city centre to Buchanan Bus Station. Walked to Central (incidentally where the bus leaves from) and got the train up to bus back.
Ended up walking the wrong way out Dumbarton Central station down a creepy back alley; but eventually found the high street. Immediately seen a Volvo B10BLE on a local run but I'd already missed it. Gave a quick run to catch my 1A to Glasgow - a route which I thought was pretty much express, but isn't!
Got to Argyle Street and awaited the late running 2 for Bailieston however that was a no-show. Instead went for the President that turned up on a 21. Took this to Rutherglen and headed to the Wetherspoons for some lunch and a pint. Lovely fish and chips with a pint of Strongbow Dark Fruits.
Walked out and had just missed a Wright Solar on the 7; a route I wanted to do to get back to Glasgow. Then turned up a Streetlite (a very full one at that) on the 267 Hamilton - Glasgow. Let this one go as I'd be standing. Seemed to be running in pairs as the next one was just behind, a puzzled driver asked why I didn't get on the one in front, to which I replied it was full!
Alighted at St George's Square and walked up to Queen Street to try and see the engineering works and the general situation with High Level being closed. Silly pointless one-way system which means you can't get onto Platform 8 from the 'normal' low level entrance which resulted in me missing a pair of 156s on an Alloa service, so I waited for a pair of 170s on an Edinburgh. Took these over to Croy for a booked +4 connection back to Glasgow, however it was soon announced my return train was cancelled due to a 'signalling failure' (a set of points failing at Hyndland). Instead of being shuttled on a RRB I took the service 43 (operated by Canavan Travel) which turned up an ex-London MPD. Still had the bay for where the rear doors used to be but nothing was inside it; bit of waste! Decent bus on a not too bad route until you get to Cumbernauld about 10-15 minutes later.
What a hell hole! The bus station is part of the shopping centre (if you can call it that). To cross to the other side of the road you have to go two floors up on horrible rackety lifts. The whole place is concrete and I've never liked Cumbernauld before. Defo won't be going back if I can help it. Boarded a Plaxton Elite on the X26 from Leven, close ish to Aberdeen. Got back to Glasgow Buchanan Bus Station where I tried my luck using my SPT Daytripper on the 500 Airport Express but wasn't allowed. So I boarded the Hospital Connect 77; never had chance to get the fleet number and totally forgot to when I alighted. Got this to Queen Elizabeth University after crossing the Clyde Tunnel. Good little route with nice E300s.
Here I then boarded a Scania on the 34A to Mount Florida where I alighted to get the train back to Glasgow Central, however once I got onto the platform, an announcement said my train was cancelled - again! (This time due to a door fault at Whitecraigs, on the Neilston branch). Luckily the Cathcart Circle has trains every 15 minutes or so in both directions both going to Glasgow. I got a 314 from the other platform into Glasgow the long way round.
From here I was tempted to milk the Daytripper a bit and get an Astromega to Ayr on the X77, one of my favourite Stagecoach Western routes. I boarded the Subway at St Enoch and went the long way round to Buchanan Galleries (on the Inner line, it's one stop but I caught the Outer line for a bit extra run). Went to Sainsbury's to abuse a meal deal and walked to Buchanan Bus Station once again.
I had just missed an X77 so I decided I'd give a First E400MMC a go on the X87 to Lenzie for the train back in. Decent bus at speed on the motorway and was there in comfort in no time at all. Walked to Lenzie station and awaited my train.
170459 took me back in via Springburn again to the Low Level platforms. By this time it was too late to go to Ayr so I stayed local until my X74 at 2015. Boarded the next train in the Low Level platforms which was 334003 and 007 to Milngavie. There were no buses back from here and the 334s returned to Yoker depot ECS so I had a bit of a wait to get back!
Pair of 320s soon rolled in which I boarded and was joined by a load of rowdy drunks later on at Bearsden. Stopped on these to Partick (the 320s continued via Glasgow Central) and got the next train (via Glasgow Queen Street) which was another 334. Walked up to the bus station and watched events including seeing the Megabus Gold Astromega arrive before working a 520 to London.
Returned on my X74 and watched the beautiful sunset from the very front seats where I also had a bit kip (or tried to after the woman opposite had stopped tapping her feet loudly for no reason and managed to polish off a whole big bag of Kettle Chips in about 10 minutes).
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