Railway station in North Lanarkshire, Scotland
Holytown railway station is a railway station serving both Holytown and New Stevenston in North Lanarkshire, Scotland. It is located on the Shotts Line, 13 miles (21 km) south east of Glasgow Central towards Edinburgh Waverley and is also on the Argyle Line. It was opened in 1880 (as 'Carfin') at the same time as the Wishaw Deviation Line from Law Junction, though the line on which it actually stands (the Wishaw and Coltness Railway) is considerably older.
Despite its name, the station is some 550 yards (500 m) from the edge of Holytown; instead it is in New Stevenston.
The station was opened to assist the coal mining industry; the mines are now long gone.
Around 2003, some services to Lanark on the Argyle Line began running via Holytown (by means of the Mossend South to East curve) then down to Wishaw, creating two routes (one via Holytown and the other via the already existing Shieldmuir). This created a twice-hourly service at Holytown to/from Glasgow and a regular link to/from Motherwell.
Services
2008 onward
Monday to Saturdays on the Shotts Line there is an hourly service westbound to Glasgow via Uddingston and eastbound to Edinburgh. Sunday services only run from Glasgow Central via Whifflet to Shotts for the month prior to Christmas.[4]
However, from December 2012 a new two hourly service has operated between Glasgow Central and Edinburgh.[5]
On the Argyle Line there is an hourly service northbound to Glasgow Central and beyond (to Milngavie) and southbound to Lanark via Motherwell with no Sunday service.
December 2014
Following a recast of the Argyle Line timetable in the wake of the Whifflet Line electrification, there is no longer a regular daytime service to Motherwell, Milngavie via Anderston or Lanark. Only the hourly (two-hourly Sunday) Shotts line stopping services now call here - one of these in each direction (06:00 Motherwell to Edinburgh Waverley ) now provides the statutory minimum service from Motherwell over the Mossend South Jcn to East Jcn curve. A single weekday peak service from Carstairs to Garscadden in the morning, returning from Anderston to Carstairs in the evening fulfils the same function for the line from Wishaw.[6]
References
Sources