Motherwell railway station

Motherwell railway station is a railway station serves the town of Motherwell, North Lanarkshire, Scotland. It lies on the West Coast Main Line (WCML), and is served also by Argyle Line trains of the Glasgow suburban railway network. It is the penultimate stop on the northbound WCML before Glasgow. There are four platforms of various length in use at Motherwell. The station is located next to the town's main shopping arcade, Motherwell Shopping Centre.

Motherwell Scottish Gaelic: Tobar na Màthar[1]
Motherwell railway station at Platforms 1 and 2. Trains running on the West Coast Main Line stop here.
General information
Location	Motherwell, North Lanarkshire Scotland
Coordinates	55.791570°N 3.994208°W / 55.791570; -3.994208
Grid reference	NS750571
Owned by	Network Rail
Managed by	ScotRail
Transit authority	Strathclyde Partnership for Transport
Platforms	4
Other information
Station code	MTH
Passengers
2019/20	1.343 million
Interchange	0.161 million
2020/21	0.174 million
Interchange	17,263
2021/22	0.546 million
Interchange	67,344
2022/23	0.699 million
Interchange	72,468
2023/24	0.918 million
Interchange	90,509
Location
Notes Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

Motherwell looking from the south, with stabling sidings in the foreground. Platform 4 is closest to the camera. The bridge in the foreground has recently been replaced with a DDA compliant one.

View northward towards Glasgow Central in 1966

History

The first station in Motherwell was opened by the Wishaw and Coltness Railway on 8 May 1843 and was located at Orbiston.^[2] As Orbiston station was quite some distance from the rapidly expanding Motherwell town centre, the decision was taken by the Caledonian Railway to build a station at 'Lesmahagow Junction', the point where the Motherwell Deviation branch of the Caledonian Railway Main Line met the lines to Mossend, Hamilton and Lesmahagow. That Motherwell station was opened on 31 July 1885 on a site conveniently in the heart of the town which replaced the original station.

The current station was built by British Rail during the 1970s (on the same site) to coincide with the completion of electrification of the West Coast Main Line from Carlisle to Glasgow which was completed in 1974. It has four through platforms, crossed by two overbridges with the main buildings being above the level of the line between Platforms 2 and 3. At platform level between Platforms 2 and 3 there is also an ScotRail traincrew depot, staff car park and an office of the British Transport Police. These are accessible via a gated rampway leading to street level.

Beyond Platform 4 are some electrified sidings used for the stabling of trains overnight. Diagrams are nominally worked so that these units will only stay at Motherwell for one night before returning to their allocated depot.

Open access operator Grand Union Trains plans to use the station on a Stirling to London Euston service to begin in 2025.^[3]

Services

Local services departing to and from the station are provided by ScotRail and the majority of northbound services serve Glasgow Central (either terminating at the High Level station or passing through the Low Level station en route to Dalmuir or Milngavie), whilst southbound Argyle Line services terminate at Lanark or Carstairs. There is one train per hour to Edinburgh Waverley via Shotts. ScotRail also provide limited services (up to two per day) to North Berwick and Ayr.

TransPennine Express provides a 2 hourly service to both Glasgow Central and Manchester Airport. There is also 1 train per day to Liverpool Lime Street

Avanti West Coast provide 8 services on weekdays northbound to Glasgow Central On Saturday 7 services call northbound and on Sundays 7 trains a day

On Mondays-Saturdays 11 trains per day call southbound to London Euston, 3 of which go via Birmingham New Street.^[4][5]

CrossCountry run two trains per day to Glasgow Central. One train per day runs southbound towards Plymouth via Edinburgh Waverley, York, Birmingham New Street and Bristol Temple Meads. On Sundays only, one service runs eastbound to Edinburgh. A limited number run beyond Plymouth through to Penzance.

Motherwell is unusual in that Glasgow Central can be reached via trains from three different platforms going in two different directions. Glasgow is generally north-west of Motherwell, but trains can depart via the West Coast Main Line in the Motherwell deviation going north, or by the Hamilton Circle going south. The same can also be said for services to Lanark, which is south-east of Motherwell. Trains can depart towards Lanark going south via Shieldmuir, or initially north via Holytown (though this route is not normally used for timetabled trains since the December 2014 timetable alterations were implemented).

During times of disruption such as the closure of the West Coast Main Line between Uddingston and Law Junction for engineering works, Avanti West Coast and CrossCountry services can be diverted along the Hamilton Circle and Wishaw Deviation. CrossCountry services are also able to diverted to Edinburgh via the Shotts line, in which case they use Platforms 3 and 4. If all all routes through the station are closed, then replacement bus service is operated from Motherwell, and passengers from Glasgow will be advised to travel to Edinburgh from Glasgow Queen Street instead of Glasgow Central.

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Lockerbie or Carlisle		Avanti West Coast West Coast Main Line		Glasgow Central
Haymarket		CrossCountry Cross Country Network		Glasgow Central
Lockerbie		TransPennine Express Manchester/Lancaster-Glasgow		Glasgow Central
Carstairs or Lockerbie		TransPennine Express Preston-Glasgow		Glasgow Central
Whifflet or Bellshill or Uddingston		ScotRail Argyle Line		Airbles or Shieldmuir
Terminus		ScotRail Motherwell to Cumbernauld Line		Whifflet
Wishaw		ScotRail North Berwick Line		Glasgow Central
Carstairs		Caledonian Sleeper Lowland Caledonian Sleeper		Glasgow Central
	Historical railways
Ferniegair Line and station open (except section between Ferniegair and Ross Junction)		Coalburn Branch Caledonian Railway		Terminus
Hamilton Central Line and station open		Hamilton Branch Caledonian Railway		Terminus
Terminus		Clydesdale Junction Railway		Uddingston Line and station open
Flemington Line open; station closed		Wishaw and Coltness Railway CR Main Line		Mossend Line open; station closed