GLASGOW’S Blue Trains on the Cathcart Circle, Kirkhill, Motherwell and Neilston lines got off to an encouraging start on Monday, May 28, 1962, after a full-scale dress rehearsal the previous day.
“So great was the public demand at many of the stations en route”, reported the Evening Times, “that there was standing-room only in many of the compartments during the morning rush periods”.
At Croftfoot and King’s Park, two of the busiest stations on the Kirkhill route, thousands of passengers joined the Blue Trains during the peak morning rush-hour between 8am and 9am. The photograph shows commuters arriving at Central Station via the Cathcart Circle Blue Trains on the Monday morning.
British Railways estimated that between 8am and 9.30am, no fewer than 5,553 passengers alighted from Blue Trains at the station - 779 more than the number formerly carried by steam and diesel trains.”In fact”, said a spokesman, “more passengers arrived at the Central Station this morning than at Queen Street when the Blue Trains were restored in October last year - 180 more, to be precise”.
A bowler-hatted commuter said he had found the train "comfortable".
Declared the Evening Times: “It is too soon to assess the full effect of the new competition to Glasgow Corporation buses, but there is no doubt they took a sizeable knock today.”
Read more: Herald Diary
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