The 1970s Modernisation

How and Why the Underground was upgraded

Why Modernisation?

To answer that one, you will need to look back to March 1968 when the Greater Glasgow Transport Study (GGTS) was published. Glasgow Corporation Transport (GCT) commissioned a report looking into the capacity of the Underground - At this point the Transport Act 1968 that formed the Greater Glasgow Passenger Transport Authority (GGPTA) Which took over the running of the Underground from GCT

At this point the trains that were running dated from the 1890’s and it had become difficult to find spares to keep the system operating, most of the spare parts came from the tram when they stop running in 1962

Click an image above to viwe a video from the National Library of Scotland Moving Image Archive on the Underground in the 1970's

At the same time the newly formed GGPTA were in talks with British Rail (BR) to re-open a railway line to connect the south and the north of Glasgow (This later became the Argyle Line from Partick to Rutherglen)

The plan

Three options were suggested to the GGPTA

No 1 – Close the system
No 2 – Keep the system going for 5 more years
No 3 – To start a Modernisation of the system

By 1973 an agreement was reached between the GGPTA and BR to create an integrated transport network. In December 1973 an exhibition was arraigned to show what the new Underground and the new Argyle Line would look like. In 1974 the Greater Glasgow Passenger Transport Order Confirmation Act was passed by the House of Commons (HoC)

The scope of the Upgrade was renewing all parts of the Underground apart from The Tunnels and the Substation Equipment

The main parts of the modernisation were

No1 – 33 new power cars
No2 – New signalling
No3 – New depot and tunnel access
No4 – new and refurbished station and Links with BR stations (Buchanan Street (BS) to Queen Street (GLQ) and Partick (PTK) to Partick (PTK) National Rail)
No5 – New Track (Retained 4ft gauge)
No6 – new automatic ticket machines, new CCTV and public address system
No7 – Renewal of power supply
No8 – New battery Locomotives

In 1976 it was planned to close one circle at a time for work to take place and the system to keep running, this plan was scrapped as it was found to be quicker to close the whole system to complete the work

Closing the Underground

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The work that ended up closing the system early started at the Depot for the new turnout chamber. In February 1977 pile driving started on creating a roof for the chamber when the system was closed at night, the system closed on the 21st may 1977 one week earlier than planned as part of the tunnel roof collapsed

When the Underground Closed the GGPTE started a bus service – Service 66 covered the Inner Circle and service 99 the Outer Circle

The final stage was to clear the tunnels and stations of equipment that was planned to be reused and kept for museum use as road access to stations was not possible at all stations. In august 1977 a sale of equipment that was no longer needed was held and raised about £16,000

Stations

As part of the modernisation the original 15 Station buildings were demolished apart from St Enoch, Cessnock, kelvin Hall  and Hillhead. St Enoch station was converted to a travel centre for the GGPTE and then SPT and is now a coffee shop with two new entrances being built next to the original building and Hillhead retaining is original building. The original entrance still remains at Kelvinbridge station and is used as the station’s emergency exit, Govan station was converted into an interchange with connections with buses

Merkland Street closed to passengers during the modernisation works, this being replaced with a new station Partick and this was also created as in interchange with the new BR station also called Partick, both now on the same site