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The Bathgate and Coatbridge Railway, also known as the "New Monkland Line", was built by Monkland Railways. It opened on 28 July 1863. The line was absorbed into the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway on 31 July 1865. The following day (1 August 1865), the line became part of the North British Railway.
The last regular passenger train along this route between Glasgow and Edinburgh ran on 8 January 1956 (the line henceforth being closed to passengers east of Airdrie). Freight services continued until February 1982, then the line was lifted.
The section between Drumgelloch and Bathgate was reopened and electrified in October 2010, thus linking the current North Clyde Line with the Edinburgh to Bathgate Line. Work to reopen the line started with a sod cutting ceremony in June 2007.
The Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway was authorised by Act of Parliament on 4 July 1838. It was opened to passenger traffic on 21 February 1842, between its Glasgow Queen Street railway station and Haymarket railway station in Edinburgh. Construction cost £1,200,000 for 46 miles (74 km). The intermediate stations were at Corstorphine, Gogar, Ratho, Winchburgh, Linlithgow, Polmont, Falkirk, Castlecary, Croy, Kirkintilloch and Bishopbriggs. There was a ticket platform at Cowlairs. The line was extended eastwards from Haymarket to North Bridge in 1846, and a joint station for connection with the North British Railway was opened on what is now Edinburgh Waverley railway station in 1847.
Lenzie railway station is a railway station serving Lenzie and Kirkintilloch in East Dunbartonshire, Scotland. It is located on the Croy Line, 6+1⁄4 miles (10.1 km) northeast of Glasgow Queen Street. Trains on the Glasgow to Edinburgh via Falkirk Line pass Lenzie by. The station is served by ScotRail.
Uphall railway station serves the village of Uphall Station and some areas of Livingston in West Lothian, Scotland. It is located on the North Clyde Line, 12½ miles (20 km) west of Edinburgh.
Bathgate railway station was a railway station serving Bathgate in West Lothian, Scotland. It was located at the western end of the Edinburgh-Bathgate Line. The station was 18½ miles (30 km) west of Edinburgh.
Bellgrove Railway Station is in the East End of Glasgow, Scotland, serving the city's Calton, Gallowgate and south Dennistoun neighbourhoods. The station is approximately 1 mile (1.6 km) to the east of Glasgow Queen Street, and is managed by ScotRail.
Coatdyke railway station is situated on Quarry Street/Riddell Street in the Cliftonville area of Coatbridge and 10 miles (16 km) east of Glasgow Queen Street. It is the closest railway station to Coatbridge College and Monklands Hospital.
Airdrie railway station is a railway station serving the town of Airdrie, North Lanarkshire, Scotland. The station is managed by ScotRail and is served by trains on the North Clyde Line, 11 miles (18 km) east of Glasgow Queen Street.
The Ballochney Railway was an early railway built near Airdrie, Lanarkshire, now in Monklands, Scotland. It was intended primarily to carry minerals from coal and ironstone pits, and stone quarries, in the area immediately north and east of Airdrie, to market, predominantly over the adjoining Monkland and Kirkintilloch Railway. Passengers were carried later.
Caldercruix railway station serves the village of Caldercruix in North Lanarkshire, Scotland. It is managed by ScotRail and is on the North Clyde Line. Originally opened by the Bathgate and Coatbridge Railway in 1862, it was closed in 1956 then reopened in 2011 as part of the reopening of the Airdrie–Bathgate rail link.
Armadale railway station is a railway station serving Armadale, West Lothian, Scotland. It is served by trains on the North Clyde Line.
The Monkland Railways was a railway company formed in 1848 by the merger of three "coal railways" that had been built to serve coal and iron pits around Airdrie in Central Scotland, and connect them to canals for onward transport of the minerals. The newly formed company had a network stretching from Kirkintilloch to Causewayend, near Linlithgow. These coal railways had had mixed fortunes; the discovery of blackband ironstone and the development of the iron smelting industry around Coatbridge had led to phenomenal success, but hoped-for mineral discoveries in the moorland around Slamannan had been disappointing. The pioneering nature of the railways left them with a legacy of obsolete track and locomotives, and new, more modern, railways were being built around them.
The Slamannan and Borrowstounness Railway was a railway built in Scotland in 1848 to extend the Slamannan Railway to the harbour at Borrowstounness on the Firth of Forth, and to connect with the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway. It was not commercially successful, but in recent years part of it was taken over by the Scottish Railway Preservation Society, which operates the Bo'ness and Kinneil Railway.
The Rutherglen and Coatbridge Railway was a railway line in Scotland built by the Caledonian Railway to shorten the route from the Coatbridge area to Glasgow. It opened in 1865. It was later extended to Airdrie in 1886, competing with the rival North British Railway. Soon after a further extension was built from Airdrie to Calderbank and Newhouse.
The Coatbridge Branch of the North British Railway was a railway built to connect the important coal and iron industrial districts of Coatbridge and Airdrie directly to Glasgow for the North British Railway.
Bathgate Upper railway station was a railway station serving the town of Bathgate in West Lothian, Scotland. It was located on the Bathgate and Coatbridge Railway.
Bathgate railway station is a railway station serving Bathgate in West Lothian, Scotland. Opened on 18 October 2010, it is close to the junction of the former Edinburgh and Bathgate Railway and the former Bathgate and Coatbridge Railway to the east of the 1986 station. Ticket gates are in operation.
Blackridge railway station is a railway station on the North Clyde Line. It serves the village of Blackridge in West Lothian, Scotland.
Drumgelloch railway station is a railway station serving the east of Airdrie, North Lanarkshire, Scotland. It is located 600 yards (550 m) east of the 1989 station on the former Bathgate and Coatbridge Railway, on the site of the former Clarkston railway station. The station previously closed in 1956.
The Glasgow, Bothwell, Hamilton and Coatbridge Railway was a railway company in Scotland, built to serve coal and ironstone pits in the Hamilton and Bothwell areas, and convey the mineral to Glasgow and to ironworks in the Coatbridge area. It was allied to the North British Railway, and it opened in 1877. Passenger services followed.
The Wilsontown, Morningside and Coltness Railway was a railway opened in 1845, primarily for mineral traffic, although a passenger service was run sporadically. The line ran from a junction with the Wishaw and Coltness Railway at Chapel, to Longridge, in South Central Scotland, and it was extended to Bathgate in 1850 after takeover by the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway. It was built to open up further coal deposits and to connect the Wilsontown Ironworks, although it did not actually reach Wilsontown. In common with the other "coal railways" with which it connected, it adopted the track gauge of 4 ft 6 in, often referred to as Scotch gauge.