Glasgow: A Transport History

A portrait of Glasgow’s public transport history from the nineteenth century through to the present day.

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Like so many others, the author used to take for granted how as a boy he would be taken on a trolleybus or a tram to visit relatives or during the holidays he might travel on the steam train and a paddle steamer ‘doon the water’ to Dunoon, or some other Clyde Coast resort. Other days he might go on a school or Boy Scouts bus run. Looking back, it is evident that public transport in Glasgow has experienced vast change. The steam-powered railway gave way to the electric ‘Blue Train’ and the modern diesel. Old railways were lost and new routes took citizens from the new suburbs (or schemes) into the city. The paddle steamers disappeared from the Clyde, as did the ferries, along with the ships and the shipyards. Trams and trolleybuses gave way to modern buses. The horse and cart faded away to be replaced by ever larger petrol and then diesel lorries and vans. Having lived through many of these changes, the author marks the passing of the numerous modes of travel and transport with a nostalgic look back over more than 100 years of development, the story accompanied by evocative photographs of what has been lost today.

So sit doon, and have a ‘wee deoch an dorus’ afore ye gang awa!